Rainbowric Posted November 8, 2012 Report Share Posted November 8, 2012 (edited) Melanotaenia maccullochi...pronounced McCulloch - eye, not mac - cul - lo'kee. Got to try and be exact here as there is a lot of confusion in the hobby about this species. Similar to trifasciata there are many variations to this fish. It was introduced into the hobby in 1935 so there was lots of time to create confusion about it. The maccullochi is a dwarf rainbowfish very seldom exceeding 6 cm in length. Most people up until a couple of years ago would recognize this fish looking similar to this... The full name for this variation was M. maccullochi "Harvey Creek". It is very important when discussing this fish that the location is added. This thread is mainly dedicated to the M. maccullochi "Skull Creek" Over that last few years this variation, Harvey Creek, has gotten quite weak and very unfortunately it is slowly disappearing from the hobby in Canada. What has happened in the hobby over the last couple of years.... not sure where the fault lies buy what the LFS is labelling and selling for M. maccullochi is a fish that looks similar to this.... The reason that I am mentioning this is that LFS all over North America are mislabelling this fish. This fish that they are selling I believe is called " Melanotaenia australis " and there are many variations of this fish also! Another common name used for the M. australis is "The eight line Rainbowfish" the "Red tailed Rainbowfish" and now they are calling them M. macculochi. When I went google searching for a picture of the M.australis I was shocked to see the many variations, in addition when I googled searched M. maccullochi there was many pictures that resembled the M. australis. So I do not believe that it is the LFS that is at fault for this. This mistake has been noted in Rainbowfish forums all over the world. Yet today I know of 2 LFS that still have this wrong label on the M. australis. I brought the M. maccullochi "Skull Creek" to Alberta almost 3 years ago. Bred hundreds of this fish and have distributed colonies throughout Canada. Have sold many to the LFS and they have asked for more! They are a great Rainbowfish if you have smaller tanks. A colony would survive quite nicely in a 20 gallon tank. This has been a very popular new fish to the hobby! They are a little shy and feel much more comfortable in a group, or if you have a pair they are always close together. Below is a M. maccullochi "Skull Creek" most are calling them "Skull Creeks" The male again has a little more fin...but cann't say that he is a whole lot brighter. The female of this species is as colorful as the male even when the male is displaying for her. The other thing that I have noticed is the female is usually larger than the male. Not so noticeable until she starts to produce eggs when at which time her appetite doubles to triple. Make sure she gets lots to eat at this time if you want eggs As I mentioned it is a dwarf Rainbowfish.... about the size of a M.praecox or common name "Neon Rainbowfish." Like I also mentioned they are also stick pretty close together and I have never seen any interbreeding between this fish and my other dwarfs in the community tank. Other males may try but the female will have nothing to do with them. I hope that I have cleared up some confusion about this species of Rainbowfish and I hope that you have enjoyed my pictures! Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours! Edited November 9, 2012 by Rainbowric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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