Rainbowric Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 (edited) The Chilatherina bleheri is a fish that you do not see often. Up until a couple of years ago when the C. fasciata "Faowi Village" was introduced to Alberta, it was the only species of the Genus family "Chilatherina" that was available to the hobby in Alberta. Why do we have 3 or 4 names on a fish? The first name is the Genus of the species, or the family of Rainbowfish, in my Journal now we have looked at 3 different Genus of Rainbowfish. Those 3 Genus are Melanotaenia, Glossolepis, and Chilatherina.....and soon we will be discussing a fourth Genus, Pseudomugil...the little Rainbowfish with blue eyes. The Genus name is always capitalized. The second name is the species. As you will notice, most of the common Rainbowfish species to the hobby today are in the Melanotaenia Genus. The species names are not capitalized. Well .... I am sorry that the software will not let me un-capitalize the species name in the titles to my threads here in my Journal. How these titles should be is Melanotaenia boesemani or Glossolepis wanamensis, or this thread title should look like this Chilatherina bleheri. Again the species names are not capitalized. The third name is usually the collection point. Example.. Melanotaenia trifasciata "Goyder River" and Melanotaenia trifasciata "Running Creek". Differently coloured fish all belonging to the Melanotaenia Genus, the species is trifasciata and the location could be either Goyder River or Running Creek. Back to the Chilatherina bleheri So the bleheri was the only species of Rainbowfish, from the Chilatherina Genus for many years. Like many of the other fish that have been around before 1990 they have become quite inbred, weaker, and washed out in color....most of them You have decided that you want a Chilatherina bleheri! After going through all the LFS for the last six months and seeing nothing that interest you, you contact a breeder and obtain a male C.bleheri. Now you have a high quality bleheri and have placed him into your beautiful planted tank. You might have something that looks like this fish. You give him the best care ever .....food, freshest water... and after a while even though he is a beautiful fish you get bored of him. So you break down and decide to put ( a female ) one of the white minnows in with him. In less than an hour he changed ....to this and what is that glowing strip down his nose, never seen that before! Funny what a female fish will to do to a lonely male fish But what happens if you put another male in with them...competition! I have another species of Chilatherina to this tank, the C. fasciata "Faowi Village" now there is more competition with the another species of Chilatherina. You will notice he is displaying a bright strip down his nose as well. Both of my colonies of three pairs each, bleheri and Faowi are in this tank together. But wait it isn't the bleheri girl that they are all getting excited for ....it is a C. fasciata "Faowi Village" girl! Now you have seen why there are a number of collectors still maintianing this fish. The demand for the Chilatherina bleheri will always be there! Hope I was able to show you the true Chilatherina bleheri.... Best regards Ric -------------------------------- "Melanotaenia boesemani from Lake Aytinjo" The Aytinjo variant does have stronger colours! Edited November 16, 2012 by Rainbowric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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