Lago Miragoane in Haiti is one of the largest natural freshwater lakes in the Caribbean, with a length of 12 km and an area of about 25 km2. In terms of its fish fauna, it is aquaristically exciting. Similar to the cichlids in the great African lakes, the livebearing toothcarps of the genus Limia have developed a special species richness in Lago Miragoane. Nine species are found there, two of which were not scientifically described until 2020. In addition, there is an interesting Gambusia species (G. beebei) in Lago Miragoane.
Of the Limia species L. nigrofasciata and L. vittata belong to the more popular aquarium fishes, the rest are seen only very occasionally by specialists. We can now offer fone of the newly described species as offspring: L. islai. This species is very similar to L. nigrofasciata. The peculiarity of L. islai is that each animal is striped differently. Thus, there are specimens with many and those with few flank stripes; this phenomenon occurs regardless of sex.
Wild specimens grow to 3-4 cm, but it is expected that old aquarium specimens (especially females) may exceed this size by 1-2 cm. Care does not differ from that of known species, according to previous findings. Like all Limia (by the way, the genus was considered synonymous to Poecilia for a long time, but is considered valid again in recent scientific works) the fish like it warm (24-28°C) and a certain amount of plant food in the diet (e.g. vegetable flake food) should not be missing.
For our customers: the animals have code 424752 on our stocklist. Please note that we supply exclusively to wholesalers.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
