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Melanotaenia Boesemani " Lake Aytinjo "


Rainbowric
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Melanotaenia boesemani " Lake Aytinjo "

Ok now for the most popular Rainbowfish of all .... and the most rarest of all M. boesemani !! Lake Aytinjo

There are many M. boesemani available today.

GRB : selective breeding in Germany

Le Corte's : selective breeding in the US

Red boesemani ...Super Red boesemani ... etc. etc.

If you would like to see some pics of all of these different boesemani follow this link..

http://www.rainbow-f...r=asc=

But actually most boesemani today originates from either the Lake Ayamaru collected in 1982 or Lake Aytinjo collected in 1998.

Again the credit for preserving this great fish goes to Jeff Burch in London, Ontario. Jeff received some eggs in 2005 from a fellow ANGFA-NA member (Kevin Hosmer). Kevin said they were newly collected and would bring new blood to strengthen blood line in North America. Early in 2008 Heiko Bleher who discovered the Lake Aytinjo strain visited Jeff in London and identified them as being the Lake Aytinjo strain. You can read about this visit of Heiko, that he published in;

http://www.aquapress...d=382&Itemid=65

The eggs were given to Jeff to raise and then outcross with the current M. boesemani stock in North America to strenghten, but Jeff kept them separate from his other stock.

About 3 years ago while visiting Jeff in London he gave me 12 fry to bring back to Alberta. Of the 12 fry I ended up with 4 males. One trio went to a Master Breeder in Quebec, another trio went to a Master Breeder in Regina, and one went to AA member Syno321 who in my mind exceeds most Master Breeders, and of course I kept a pair. Later spring of 2011, I met AA member geleen who asked if I might be able to obtain some for him. I called my fellow breeder in Regina and he sent 20 of them back to me of which from I provided geleen with a colony. I kept a couple of pairs of that 20 as well and below is a few pictures of them.

This male is almost 2 years old now...

L_aytinjo_a.jpg

Of course like most of my species I have twins or triplets....

L_aytinjo_c.jpg

These fellows get a little excited when a female gets close to this mop!

L_aytinjo_b.jpg

I still have my original pair that is about 3 years old now and still spawning at least every water change! below a pic of the male.

L_aytinjo_d.jpg

He is in my living room community show tank and occasionally he might challange the C. fasciata "Faowi Village" for Alpha male position in the tank! Remember this Faowi is almost 5 inches in length!

L_aytinjo_e.jpg

The Faowi is the Alpha male in the tank but I don't think that this boesemani would back down if he moved in on his female!

This strain of boesemani is very rare ...why?? ... they take a very long time to mature..... and when they are young, they don't look a lot different then some of the $10.99 boesemani sold in the LFS. So breeders don't bred them often. geleen told me last month that he had 3 pairs that needed a home, without hesitation I told him that they were sold!

I hope you have enjoyed this post.

Best regards,

Ric

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"Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo"

M_boes_Aytinjo_t.jpg

The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

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Just got a message from AA member syno321! I guess he will have a couple of young pairs in the Edmonton Auction this weekend!

And he says they are sexed ...might not notice it in the bag though as being as young as they are...stressed ...they probably won't show so much color.

I hope that when I do my thread on care and raising Rainbowfish he will let us know what diet he has these fish on as it was not long ago that he bred them. :)

They might be a little pricey but they are of the same generation that my 2 year olds are .... for an idea Gary Lange put up a couple of trio's on Aquabid not to long ago .... same generation and probably about the same size as the pairs that syno321 is putting up. Check out how they went for bidding....

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/closed.cgi?view_closed_item&fwrainbows1349484862

You guys have a great weekend up there in Edmonton ... sorry I can't make it!

Good to hear from you Paul!

Ric

Edited by Rainbowric
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  • 3 months later...

Picture taking .... you know it is nice to have a DSLR camera to take pictures of your fish for a number of reasons. What is a real bonus is having a 100 mm Macro IS USM lens to go with it. Sometimes though pictures taken with this setup can be a little deceiving although very informative as you can see things that the eye cannot. For example .... you can take a picture of a 1 inch PF shrimp and turn it into a 10 inch monster ...pending the size of your monitor. :)

Rainbowric_ffff.jpg

For getting a good look at a young fish it can be really helpful! I have 6 pairs of young boesemani "Lake Aytinjo" that I have been stuffing with live bb and a whole bunch of good stuff for about a month now wondering if they will be worth all my efforts. This species .... one of the unfortunate things about it is that it grows very slow! The other thing is when they are in a group you will only see maybe one or two really color up as young they are shy and submissive. These are a couple of reasons why many breeders keeping this species of boesemani don't breed them. In addition when they are only a couple of inches long they don't look much different in the LFS then the other boesemani at $9.88 each, which is no where the fish that the Lake Aytinjo is. Yesterday I had a bunch of bloodworms that I was feeding to another species that I was collecting eggs from, with a few left over I threw them in with these young boesemani which in addition also had a water change earlier that day. In the afternoon I came down to check the fish that I was breeding and saw a couple of bright spots coming from the tank of boesemani. So grabbed the camera, after not using it for a few weeks and managed to get a couple of interesting shots.

As you can see they are not much larger than a cory catfish....

IMG_2010_zps7552ea52.jpg

or not as big as a young praecox ....

IMG_2005_zps56628ed8.jpg

Nice color on these young fish .....

IMG_2049_zps65db827c.jpg

These would be cousins to my 2 year old 3 inch plus twins, that I posted earlier that I hope to use with to line breed with later.

IMG_1985_zpsb5871304.jpg

Indeed the 100 mm macro lens does help you see just how good a 1.5 inch fish really looks like. I believe these to be winners again when they get older.

IMG_2058_zps84cd03c2.jpg

Cheers

Ric

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"Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo"

M_boes_Aytinjo_t.jpg

The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours!

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BEAUTIFUL fish Ric and thank you very much for sharing with us. I look forward to seeing more of these wonderful, colorful fish.

Thank you .... I hope that I will be able to provide you more! Wishing you success with your Rams!

As usual Rick your pictures are fantastic. The aytinjo is a gorgeous fish I love to watch mine.

J

Thanks to your work John with this species, and now Paul's, I think we have done a pretty good in establishing this excellent strain of M. boesemani in the province!

L_aytinjo_j_zps4b263bc0.jpg

Cheers

Ric

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