Rainbowric Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 (edited) The Melanotaenia trifasciata "Running Creek" in my mind is probably the second most popular trifasciata in Canada, Goyder River being first! The USA may argue that the Wonga Creek is second but in my Journal he will be published third. The species description was published in 1922 by Hialmar Rendahl, on the basis of one single specimen from the Mary River, in the Northern Territory. Why he proposed the name trifasciata, meaning literally "three-banded", is not very obvious when you look at live specimens. Many of you may think that the labelled yellow rainbowfish in your LFS ... is this fish. However prior to three years ago I have never seen this fish in any LFS and the yellow rainbowfish seen much was a variation of the M. herberaxlerodi which I will publish next after this one. I had this fish about 10 years ago that I recieved from Kent West in LA, California. At that time Kent was operating more than 500 tanks of Rainbowfish. The last male that I had from that bunch was huge, well over 5 inches. Largest fish in the tank, bright like the sun, and was god over all my other fish. I named him at that time Apollo ..the sun god! When I lost him I search many more years to obtain this species again. Three years ago .... again thanks to Jeff Burch in London, Ontarion I was able to get a mop of eggs from him and was able to bring the species back to Alberta. There were well over 200 fertile eggs in that mop and I raised every one of them. They were distributed amonst all the LFS in Calgary and a few of them labeled them "Yellow Rainbowfish" I have breed this fish a number of times over the last three years and have never had a disappointed LFS owner! Below is a picture of a couple of back up breeders that I have that are about 3.5 to 4 inches in lenght and about 1.5 years old. In my living room show tank is one of my first originals from Jeff that is almost 5 inches now at 3 years of age. The female Running Creek ....like most Rainbowfish females has shorter fins and not quite as bright in color. This pair has been together now for almost 3 years now and spawn weekly ! He is a pretty mellow laid back fish, nothing like the M. trifasciata "Goyder River" or the "Wonga Creek" unless someone is messing around with his girl! The lateral line on them gets quite dark blue almost black and the yellow really starts to glow when they get worked up. The two young males down in my fish room are like this most of the day as neither will back down from each other. Still one of my favorites and probaly my largest Rainbow ....The M. trifasciata "Running Creek" Hope you have enjoyed! Best regards, Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours! Edited November 8, 2012 by Rainbowric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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