HORRID NEWS

As many of you will know, we had a nascent colony of Thorichthys sp. mixteco, a very rare and so-far un-named species of Mexican cichlid. We (and in particular, Oll and Allan Lindsay) had reared them from tiny hatchlings until adulthood, and we had been hoping to breed them this year.

They were probably the only fish of this species on public display anywhere in the UK if not the world, because - as part of our outreach project - we had kept them swimming happily in the show tank in the restaurant at the Farmers Arms, in Woolsery, where they had delighted and interested thousands of people.

Some time during the last twenty-four hours, in what may have been a senseless act of vandalism, it appears that person or persons unknown poured their drinks into the fishtank, killing all but one of them. At the moment I am too upset to comment further. However, comment further I shall certainly do....

RAMS REDUX

As readers with long memories will remember, about a year ago we attended a cichlid auction in the Midlands, where we bought several undescribed cichlid species, which are doing fine, and several pairs of Ramerizi dwarf cichlids, which nearly all died almost immediately. We were left with one plump and healthy female, and so (with fingers firmly crossed) we have found a mate for her. Two days on, he seems to be happy and healthy, although as his bride is considerably larger than he is, he looks at her with considerable trepidation whenever she swims near him....

UPDATE ON `EGGSPOTS`

Following yesterday's story about the new cichlid magazine being produced in Germany, our old compadre Mary Bailey writes:

'Just to enlighten you, Erwin Schraml is a leading German aquarist specialising in African cichlids plus catfishes, and eggspots is his "baby". Uli Schliewen is a leading German ichthyologist working in genetics and West African cichlids. Martin Geerts is one of the authors (with Ufermann & Allgayer) of the "Cichlid Catalogue" privately published about 20 years ago and invaluable even now for checking taxonomy. People often ask me about cichlid taxonomy, and if I don't know I ask Martin as he is omniscient on the subject!'

A SMASHING NEW JOURNAL

I got a very cryptic email this morning. It read:

'The new, second issue of the online journal eggspots is now available at

http://www.worldfish.de/eggspots.html

At present you have to scroll down to find it, but I've suggested to management that the latest issue should appear at top of page to make life easier.

MB'

I checked it out, and found a very well produced magazine about cichlids. The opening paragraphs of the editorial read:

'A journal on fishes with eggspots? Isn't that something very specialised? Indeed, it is an online journal that will deal primarily and above all else with fishes that possess eggspots. By this we understand cichlids from Africa and the Near East belonging to the group that includes Haplochromis, Pseudocrenilabrus, Pseudotropheus, Tropheus et al. But aren't there already enough magazines dealing with fishes on the market? Absolutely not! There can never be too many!

Competition not only invigorates business but also spurs authors and editors to greater effort, and each new magazine permits the reporting of a little more information on a fascinating and virtually inexhaustible subject.'

And then the penny dropped. `MB` was Mary Bailey, doyenne of the British Cichlid world, and someone with whom I worked during my ultimately fruitless time with Tropical World magazine between 2004-2007. Also on the masthead is Dr Peter Burgess, someone I also remember from my time as deputy editor to the late semi-lamented Simon Wolstencroft. I don't know the other three main movers and shakers but from the quick look I have had so far this seems to be an absolutely smashing periodical.

Well done, guys.

CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE

• What are eggspots, really?
• The phylogenetic relationships of the cichlids and the groups that are the focus of this journal
• All beginnings are difficult - first tropical experiences in Uganda (part 1)
• New research on the genus Melanochromis
• Species profile: Haplochromis aeneocolor
• Eggspots Elsewhere
  

DIARY OF A MAD CRYPTOZOOLOGIST - Part Three: Baby Fish

Follows on from Part Two

So I went back to bed and my long delayed peruse of The Word. And a mighty fine read it was too. After about ten minutes I felt myself slipping back into the arms of Morpheus. Would I get to sleep again this time?

Would I heck!

The telephone rang again. It was Allan from the pub. "Errm we've got a second and maybe a third spawning of the gouramis, and three babies I can't identify in the other tank".

So for the third time that afternoon I got dressed, and for the first time I ventured outside as my darling Corinna and I bumbled oop t'pub. The babies were platies, which was nice but not unforseen, but we had a nice cup of tea with Allan and Jennie, and then decided to go to Asda to get some meat for the dog.

Whilst in Asda I bumped into a vague fishkeeping acquaintance who told me that he had just bred `white firemouth cichlids`. He said they were not albinos but were a predominantly white colour morph of Thorichthys meeki. Well, I've never heard of that, and neither (so it transpired) had Max. We are particularly interested in the genus Thoricthys at the moment because of our metzico blue spp up at the Farmers Arms so Max was pleased as punch that I managed to arrange a swap of some fry for some of our burgeoning army of gourami fry..

So all's well that ends well, and I eventually got back to bed

THE RIDDLE OF THE LAKE GUINAS TILAPIA

This is one of the most obscure - and rarest - fish in the world. It is found only in two small lakes in Namibia, and no-one knows exactly how they got there because there are are no other bodies of water for miles.

But arrive they did, and the little fish have adapted well to the rigours of the harsh desert environment.

However, changing environmental conditions and farming practises mean that both lakes are now rapidly losing water, with dire implications for the tilapia which are now considered to be `critically endangered`. These are from a captive colony at Farnham Birdworld in Surrey...

POOR LITTLE SODS

The saga of the CFZ ramerizi trundles on. As I write there are three left, and although they still look OK, I would not be at all surprised to find one or more dead in the bottom of the tank tomorrow morning when I come down to the office. We have been doing our research (which we should have done earlier), and it seems that we managed to screw up the pH which on this occasion was pretty much our fault.

However, the entire species in aquaculture seems to be pretty much sinned against, which is something that I never realised. Mary Bailey (the doyenne of the British Cichlid scene) wrote to me yesterday explaining the unpleasant facts of ramerizi life:

"Most Rams are mass produced with no quality control, shipped to the UK in little plastic envelopes with virtually no water, and then decanted into asuccession of different water types in the importer-wholesaler-retailerchain. By the time the aquarist buys them they are ready to pop their poorlittle clogs, and it's a miracle they last that long. A lot don't. I can't keep these mass-produced rams alive myself. They're usually all males anyway, as they keep the females for broodstock, or ship different sexes to different countries to prevent aquarists breeding them and spoiling the market".

I don't know about you guys, but I think that this is absolutely bloody shameful. As I get older I get more to the way of thinking that although they have the answers wrong the animal rights brigade really do have a point.

If we want to be able to continue to have exotic pets and zoos, then we - as a community - are damn well going to have to start policing ourselves, and moreover, we are going to have to start doing it properly before it is too late.