Rainbowric Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 (edited) Lake Wanam rainbowfish.....Glossolepis wanamensis ....Emerald Rainbowfish On with the wanamensis...This fish has had quite a few names. It was first collected by C. Ellway in 1975 but it wasn't until 1979 that they were scientifically described. Today they are extinct in the wild and there has been many efforts to restore them, with all of them failing! It was thought that this fish was even extinct in the hobby in North America until just a few years back a colony was discovered in London, Ontario by a Rainbowfish breeder by the name of Jeff Burch. Jeff has been maintaining his colony for well over a decade. They were identified by Heiko Bleher who originally discovered them in the wild while he visiting Jeff's fishroom in London. They are not easy to breed .... well I think that we have figured out how to now. Raising them are not that easy as well....but I think that we have figured out how to do that as well. I obtained my breeders from Jeff about 3 years ago, actually both my breeders and Gary Lange's breeders are from Jeff. So all of the "Pure" wanamesis being sold today in North America originate from Jeff's colony. Last year I bred and raised about 140 of them. I shipped them to breeders in the USA, Eastern Canada, and BC. Plus many of them were distributed here in Alberta. You will have seen many in the LFS over the years but it is doubtfull that they were pure. Pure strains many years ago ended up being crossed with other species from the Glossolepis family by mistake and it also made it considerably easier to breed, and the slight changes in the fish were hardly noticeable. I did post a number of pictures last year in the Livestock Classified section.. you might recognize this one. He was about 6 or 7 months old then. Well they have grown and starting to look much more like the wanamesis pictures published in the Science Journals. Very hard to capture the true color of these fish with a camera. They look much better in a dark tank with black substrate and when you use a flash...you need a fair amount....and if you use to much they reflect some of the flash back at you. A have two males that are almost twins that like to pose for me These two are great to watch! Even though I have none available and won't be breeding any soon I believe that we will see these again soon available in Alberta! Hope you have enjoyed these photo's Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours! Edited November 6, 2012 by Rainbowric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainbowric Posted October 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Reserved for future use.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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