Tag Archives: rainbowfish

Melanotaenia boesemani Red

22. March 2019

The blue-red Boesemans rainbow fish has not disappeared from the aquariums since its aquaristic discovery in 1981. For a time, it was so sought after that it was caught on a massive scale for export; these animals went almost exclusively to Japan, where were paid insane sums for them. There were even fears of overfishing of the animals, which occurre only in a very small area, and therefore an export ban was imposed. All animals on the market are bred ones for decades, so overfishing of the natural stocks has long ceased.

Melanotaenia boesemani Red is a breeding selection that does not occur in the wild. They are beautifully coloured fish and the perfect starter species for everyone who wants to try rainbow fish for the first time, because neither the care nor the breeding are difficult. However one should consider that these fish are very long-lived and easily reach 10-12 cm, also 15 cm are probably possible. One should therefore have sufficiently large aquariums (from 120 cm edge length) available for them, because in too small aquariums they cannot live out themselves properly.

For our customers: the animals have code 427313 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Chilatherina sentaniensis

10. August 2017

110 yeras ago – 1907 – the German-Dutch scientist Max Weber described freshwater fishes from New Guinea, which have been collected by a scientific expedition to the island by the Netherlands in 1903. One of the new species was a rainbowfish. Weber named it Rhombatractus sentanienis. Nowadays we know that fish under the name of Chilatherina sentaniensis. The specific name was chosen after Lake Sentani, elevation 75 m over sea level, where the type specimens have been collected. Later expeditions to the lake showed that the species can be found rather in the affluences of the lake than in the lake itself.

The introduction in the hobby appeared much later and until kow this attractive fish is seen only sporadically in the trade. We can offer the fish since 2013 from time to time. As in most species of rainbowfish one has to be a bit patient until the animals show their full splendid coloration, but from the moment on they do the patience is more than rewarded. For more informations on the species please see http://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/chilatherina_sentaniensis_en/

For our customers: the fish have code 410153 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer

Melanotaenia australis

2. August 2017

One of the species of rainbowfishes with the longest aqurium history is the dwarf rainbowfish, Melanotaenia maccullochi. It reached Europe as early as 1934 and is kept and bred since then. However, if we order nowadays M. maccullochi from Indonesia we do not get this species, but another one which has only a rough similarity with M. maccullochi: M. australis. M. australis has been considered to be a subspecies of M. splendida for a long time. It is distributed in northern Australia. The variety with the pretty red fins that is spread in the hobby currently looks most similar to the form from the Sale River in the Kimberly region, state of Western Austalia. We can offer this species both as imports from Indonesia (bred fish) as well as German bred ones. It attains a maximum length of about 11 cm.

For our customers: the fish have code 427104 and 427123 (selective bred „Super Red“) on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.