The dwarf Surinam toad (Pipa parva) from Venezuela is a real rarity in the aquarium. We have a breeder who can occasionally offer us some of them. At first sight the nice animals remind us of dwarf clawed frogs (Hymenochirus), but you can always tell them apart from them by the branched fingertips – typical […]
The checkerboard dwarf cichlids (Dicrossus) belong to the most beautiful of all dwarf cichlids. However, they are very demanding concerning the chemical water composition, at least when it comes to breeding. Then they need almost distilled water with a pH value around 5. Any bacterial load is only poorly tolerated. For this reason, Dicrossus are […]
This in the DATZ 12/05 newly introduced very beautiful Hypancistrus variant is currently available in small quantities. The animals remind in their habitus of L 333 and are sometimes confused with them. All in all L401 are more dainty, somewhat more stretched and reach only a total-length of maximum 12 cm, while L 333 can […]
Why the Oscar is called the Oscar? Honestly, we don’t know that for sure. But what is certain is that the name originated in the USA. In 1936, an essay by E. W. Clarke about Astrontus appeared in the journal “The Aquarium”. In 1949 Gene Wolfsheimer reported in „The Aquarium Journal“ that the aquarists in […]
In the black water of Sundaland (Indonesia, Malay Peninsula) you will find many wonderful aquarium fish like chocolate gouramis, harlequin barbs and kuhli loaches. However, these are only the best known; the numerous species of small and colourful barbs and rasboras, for example, are only known by a few. Among them is Trigonopoma pauciperforatum (formerly […]
The eastern Atlantic from Portugal to Angola, is the origin of the fiddler crab Afruca tangeri, where it inhabits sand and mangrove coasts. We obtain the animal from Nigeria. The to an enormous size grown major claw of the males is remarkable. It is used for attracting the females and for the fight between rivaling […]
Shortly after the first import of Argonectes longiceps we were able to import another feather tetra, which has not yet been seen, at least by us: Hemiodus thayeria. This beautiful, elegant fish comes from the border area of Brazil and Colombia at the Rio Negro. The type specimen was already collected in 1925 by Carl […]
There are several species of Corydoras, which even pronounced specialists are not able to distinguish. In such cases it might be useful to speak of species groups instead of species. One such example is the species group around Corydoras elegans in the narrower sense, which includes C. elegans, C. napoensis, C. nanus and several C- […]
Gambuses don’t have a good reputation in aquaristics. They are considered grey, quarrelsome and difficult fish. This is not completely wrong, especially when it comes to the worldwide plague Gambusia holbrooki. But few aquarists realize that there are 45 different species of Gambusia and it is very unfair to use the same comb for all […]
After longer time we could import again the beautiful Chaetostoma sp. L455 Tiger from Peru. Generally speaking, Chaetostoma species do not stand out because of their attractive colors, but this species makes a clear exception – at least the males. The females are colored considerably simpler. Some specimens show a red coloration in the tail […]