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Melanotaenia Praecox " Pagai "


Rainbowric
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Melanotaenia praecox "Pagai" known as praecox .... neon Rainbowfish, very common Rainbowfish for many many years. About 3 years ago the praecox seen in the LFS were starting to become quite dull looking...not to forget to mention the health on them was rather poor as well. Fortunately Gary Lange went out and did a collection of this wonderful little (dwarf) Rainbowfish.

It was a while before F1's became available to us. We were very lucky to see F1's, as many in Europe were quite pleased to see F2 and F3 of this collection that came from Pagai. I was able to obtain a mop of eggs from Gary in June of 2010 from which I hatched well over 100 fry. Later in the spring of 2011 Gary came to Calgary and Edmonton and auctioned off some eggs from his group of wild caught praecox. So there were many F1's to be seen in Alberta in 2011!

The question that so many ask today is the expected life span of the praecox. Before the Pagai collection came along many believed it to be 2 to 3 years. I know that Gary still has some of his wild caught but I wonder ....

How many people in Alberta today can say that they have M. praecox "Pagai" F1 ?

Here is a picture of one of my pairs that I have, that is now 2.5 years old!

praecox_pagai_f.jpg

Strong and stunning pair!

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This boy is dominant in the tank ....and let's all the other fish know it!

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Easy to tell female from male as the male has bright red fins and the female yellow to orange fins.

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and this pair is still spawning, not just after water changes but at least every other day... as here you can see him with his strip down the nose signaling the female!

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I haven't noticed any signs of this pair getting old. Yes I have lots of young F2's !

Hope you liked these pictures.

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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While I can't say I have F1s, but I did get some young from John several months ago, and have added to my group from their own kids! Awesome fish!

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While I can't say I have F1s, but I did get some young from John several months ago, and have added to my group from their own kids! Awesome fish!

Would not matter much having F1's, I believe that it will be at least F6 before we "might" see some deterioration in the quality of this strain! Having rainbowfish F5 or better is pretty good today!

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My F2's are starting to look pretty nice!

praecox_paga_h.jpg

These little ones are just over an inch, with lots of spawning taking place in the tank each morning.

praecox_paga_k.jpg

Watch for an advertisement next week!

praecox_paga_i.jpg

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  • 2 years later...

Indeed there was a huge demand to bring fresh blood of this species back into the hobby! One collection rumored that a pair of wild caught praecox went for $2500 in Asia and that there were no females available to buy from this pair. Then all of a sudden we had lots of F1's available thanks to Gary Lange and this collection and distribution efforts ...he brought me up a mop loaded with eggs and I sold over a hundred of them and then Gary brought up egg kits to Edmonton and Calgary Spring Workshops and it seamed that everyone had F1 praecox "Pagai" available.

I kept a pair of F1's, loss the female after a couple of years, replaced them with 2 F2 girls...kept the old boy quite happy for almost 4 years and just recently lost him. :( I gave the two F2 girls to AA member geleen who has an F2 boy, who now has a bunch of F3 fry!

Again thanks to John as I don't know of anyone else that has kept track of this fish ...yes there are praecox around ...they are in the LFS, not near the quality of the original Pagai, lower end praecox ...couldn't say if they are from Pagai or for that matter what generation they might be from the wild.

I had both fish in one of my show tanks at the same time ....F1 praecox "Pagai" and F1 Wapoga Lazers (stripped praecox) and IMO the Pagai praecox was a much brighter neon blue with much longer deeper red fins then the Lazer! I would much rather have a colony of them to show then the Lazer fish!

Cheers

Ric

Edited by Rainbowric
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