Hatchetfishes are normally wild caught. They are very common, easy to transport and therefore a welcome addition to the sustainable ornamental fish fishery in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Brazil. This is also true for the “Common” Hatchetfish, Gasteropelecus sternicla. For general information on the species, please also see https://www.aquariumglaser.de/fischarchiv/ein-grosser-klassiker-gasteropelecus-sternicla/.
For some years now, offspring of this species have been coming from Indonesia, which is a very popular way to bridge supply bottlenecks from the wild. Such supply bottlenecks occur seasonally once in a while during high water etc.. It was actually only a question of time until albinos appeared among the offspring with their thousands of offspring. Et voilà: We can now offer albinos of Gasteropelecus sternicla as offspring for the first time.
For comparison on some photos you can see normal colored G. sternicla. These are wild caught specimens from Colombia, the albinos are offered pure.
For our customers: the albino hatchetfishes have code 254422 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesale.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
