A little bit of history in your tank

At the beginning of the 21st century there is an enormous variety of fish for the aquarist to choose from. One of the most exciting parts of my job is when I receive a dealer's list which includes newly discovered species which haven't even been given Latin names. I have been keeping tropical fish since I was a boy in the mid-1960s, and on a whole, the fish that I started with are those still used by beginners today.

I suppose if I had thought about it - and I have to admit that until I came to write this article I hadn't really - I had imagined that these myriad living jewels were of the home aquarium had been known to science for for many many years, even if they hadn't been commonly kept as pets until the technology to allow them to be so, had been developed.

How wrong I was. It turns out that some of the fish most popular with aquarists are actually relatively recent discoveries. In many ways it could be said that the proliferation of tropical fish species known to science is actually a direct result of the expansion of what was once a mildly arcane rich man's hobby into a multinational industry worth tens of billions of dollars each year.

Take the neon tetra for example. Although it is found in its untold millions in the Rio Putumayo - one of the tributaries of the Amazon, it was not actually discovered until 1936 when a French animal collector called A. Rabout noticed them by accident whilst he was actually trying to do something completely different! He was canoeing along the river when he saw a large shoal of these ridiculously beautiful fish. He scooped about half-a-dozen up in his hat, and the rest is history!

He sent them to Chicago's John G. Shield Aquarium where they were given a Latin name Paracheirodon innesi in honour of the famous pioneering and aquarist, William T.Innes whose seminal work on tropical fish in the 1930s has been my favourite fish book for four decades. The popular name was a topical one because the psychedelic glare of neon lighting had only just begun to make its presence felt on the American consciousness. For many years the precise location of the natural habitat of these tiny fish was a closely guarded secret! It seems strange today, when you can pick up this lovely fish for a handful of pennies, to look back at the days when neon tetras were so highly sought-after that a single specimen could cost more than all the other fish in a collector's tank.

The names of fish can often give a clue to the date of a species discovery. Like the neon tetra, Cichlasoma biocellatum - a particularly pugnacious species of cichlid is the proud possessor of a topical name which ties down the discovery date nicely. At any other time its common name would have been the same as its Latin name - the twin eyed cichlid. However, at the time of its discovery in 1909, C Tate Regan, the man who fished the type specimen out of the Rio Negro, was a boxing fan and named this plucky little cichlid after Jack Dempsey the famous boxer. As Dempsey didn't rise to fame until after the First World War, and didn't reach his legendary status until the 1920s, it appears that its common name arrived some years after its discovery.

Years ago I remember telling my father about this legendary fish, and he told me how - whilst a sailor on shore leave in New York during the war - he had drunk with the famous boxer at a bar he had bought after his retirement in 1940.

Even the Guppy - possibly the most ubiquitous tropical fish in the world was only discovered in 1856 when Julius Gollmer, a German pharmacist living in Caracas caught some colourful little fish which he eventually sent back as part of a shipment of animals to the Berlin Zoo. The first delivery of these fishes brought to their discoverer an inordinate amount of praise and a gratuity of hundred Reichstaler. However, the 16 dead guppies preserved in alcohol stayed on the shelf of a German museum for several years before they were finally named. For some reason, although both male and female guppies had been sent, only the females were described, and it wasn't until 1866 when Reverend John Lechmere Guppy sent both males and females back from Trinidad that the notable degree of sexual dimorphism which has made these lovely little fish perennial aquarium favourites ever since, was noted and the fish named after the good Padre of Trinidad.

If it hadn't been for the ineptitude of the experts at the National Museum of Germany then the tiny fish which has become one of the most famous Aquarium denizens of all time would have been called The Gollmer!

The Cardinal Tetra is a surprisingly recent discovery. The type specimens were found in the Rio Negro only three years before my birth in 1959. Once again, it is very tempting to draw links between the invention of new technology for the fish keeper and the discovery of a number of new species. The invention - in the mid-1950s - of the under gravel filter revolutionised fish keeping around the world. It was the first truly biological medium for ensuring water purity and it has - with some degree of justification - been described as the most important technical advance in the history of a hobby. There is no doubt that the discovery revolutionised fish keeping and led to a renewed level of public interest. This in turn drove the movers and shakers of the aquarist community to search out new and exotic creatures which they could display for the public edification. The Cardinal Tetra was one of these. The common name comes from a fanciful idea that they resemble the colours worn by a high ranking prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, and the scientific name - axelrodi is a none too subtle nod to one of the market leaders in the global fish keeping industry.

It is sad to note that within only a few years of its discovery these fish were being described as becoming a threatened species in the wild.

When examining the literature surrounding the discovery of so many of these species, one realises quite how important the global Aquarium industry has become. Most of the creatures described in this article were, indeed, discovered a result of market forces led expeditions whose only remit was to discover more species suitable for introduction into the Global Pet market. However, there is another paradigm which is almost equally prevalent. This is where a species - plecostamus sucker mouth catfish are a good example - is discovered by a scientific team sent out by a university or museum. These (now ubiquitous) fish were mostly discovered in the 1930s, but were not introduced into the aquarium trade for some decades. The species is captured, named and then forgotten until - almost by accident - it is "rediscovered" by an industry who has decided that it is ripe for exploitation.

In some cases it is possible to see how the integration of certain fish species into the popular market place comes as a result of human politics. The Spanish American war at the beginning of the 20th century not only changed the political map of the world with the Philippines, Puerto Rico and several other places coming under American rule, but was instrumental in a number of Central American species - including platys and swordtails being introduced to the domain of the home aquarist. The expansion of the British Empire in the 19th century led to the discovery of gouramis as pet fish - originally in the ornamental pools of the Raj, and later as exhibits in the first British tropical aquaria.

The pages of the history books, which tell the story of aquaculture, make uncomfortable reading. Like so many branches of Human Endeavour they tell the story of how mankind rapes, abuses and finally denudes whole sections of the planet on which we have been privileged to evolve. Nowadays the industry likes to feel that it is far more ethical than it has been in the past. Indeed, that is generally the case. However, it is important with fish keeping - as with everything else - not to lose the sight of the lessons of history. Although sometimes the story of the discovery of a species - like the Guppy - merely reveals a mildly amusing insight into the human Psyche, on other occasions - such as the cardinal Tetra - the story is a far less edifying one, and furthermore one which we as hobbyists would do well to take heed of.