Killi World

New species: Hypsolebias faouri, Ricardo Britzke, D T. B. Nielsen & Claudio Oliveira, 2016

2016-05-24T04:57:00.000-07:00

A new species from the Hypsolebias antenori group, Hypsolebias faouri, has been described from a temporary pool located near Rio Preto, a tributary of the Rio São Francisco, Bahía State, Brazil.

Hypsolebias faouri "Prazeres BR2014/01"

The species was discovered by Mayler Martins, Luciano Araujo, Fabio Origuela and Amer Faour in January 2014

S.cholopteryx Ribeirao do Sapo

2015-06-22T01:13:00.002-07:00

Austrolebias luteoflammulatus Ruta 9 Km 205

2015-04-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

Austrolebias luteoflammulatus is originary from Uruguay, but some populations has also been found in Brazil. In my opinion this is the nicest Austrolebias species and also a difficult one.

Austrolebias luteoflammulatus Ruta 9 Km 205. Young male

It's not easy to maintain them in our tanks in the long term and we normally can't see them available for sale or trade, and it's for a reason. I've had big problems getting the eggs ready to hatch and after that many of them don't hatch or hatch as belly sliders. The are also reports of adults dying suddenly without any symptoms or known diseases.

What we can't discuss is about their unquestionable beauty :)

Hypsolebias magnificus Malhada BR2013

2015-02-25T15:18:00.001-08:00

The well known Hypsolebias magnificus, not just one of the most beautiful killifish but one of the most beautiful fish. Shares this amazing pattern with Hypsolebias picturatus and Hypsolebias harmonicus and also have similarities with Hypsolebias carlettoi, Hypsolebias fulminantis and Hypsolebias shibattai.

Hypsolebias magnificus Malhada BR2013

This species was popularized and distributed in the hobby after the BR93 collection trip where it was found at the Itacarimbi population together with an Hypsolebias species from the Hypsolebias flagellatus group and a Cynolebias species.

It's an easy species, but we can have serious problems with the sex-ratio as sometimes most of the fish that we manage to hatch and raise are males.

Simpsonichthys boitonei

2015-01-09T00:42:00.002-08:00

Simpsonichthys boitonei

This beautiful species was described in 1959 by Carvalho and was found by the Zoological Garden of Brasilia (Goias State, Brazil).

It's an easy species that lives quite long for an annual species (as happens with most of the Simpsonichthys species). They produce big eggs that after 2-5 months turn completely black once they are ready to hatch, which makes them difficult to be found in the peat.

They live without problems in the 17-18ºC to 33ºC range.

Hypsolebias flammeus Nova Roma BR2014/5

2014-12-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

This is a young male of Hypsolebias flammeus Nova Roma BR2014/5. You can notice it because there are almost no filaments in the anal and dorsal fin yet. Within a few weeks I hope I can show you the adult pattern

Nova Roma's population is not the species' Terra typica (Arraias), but it's the only population that reached the hobby.

Maratecoara gesmonei "São Félix do Xingu"

2014-12-04T11:43:00.003-08:00

Maratecoara gesmonei "São Félix do Xingu"

This beautiful species was described several months ago by Dalton Nielsen, Mayler Martins and Ricardo Britzke. It's originary from a pool in an island in the Xingu river in front of São Félix do Xingu, Pará State, Brazil. It was named after Gesmon Fernandes, a professional collector and discoverer of the species.

This species is not an easy one and, like the rest of the Maratecoara's species, many eggs dissapear during the incubation time.

The picture shows a young male, not fully colored up yet.

Spectrolebias semiocellatus Formoso do Araguaia

2014-11-26T11:46:00.002-08:00

Spectrolebias semiocellatus Formoso do Araguaia

Spectrolebias semiocellatus is a very interesting annual species that was discovered by Andre de Luca, Dalton Nielsen and Andre Carletto in 1996 and described by Costa a year later. The type locality is located in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins State (Brazil) but it's quite wide spread in the area. In one of the pools it can be found together with other six killifish annual species: Spectrolebias costai, Maratecoara lacortei, Trigonectes rubromarginatus, Pituna compacta, Plesiolebias aruana and Plesiolebias fragilis.

It's a delicate fish that requires an advanced breeder to succeed. We must pay attention to the water parameters and fight against a difficult sex-ratio, very heavy on males. The worst difficulty breeding this species is the high number of eggs that dissapear during the incubation period, up to 70% of the eggs may dissapear within the first weeks.

It shares a similar pattern with Spectrolebias inaequipinnatus, a sister species and the two only ones with different anal and dorsal asimetric shape.

Leptolebias aureoguttatus Paranaguá

2014-10-22T09:27:00.003-07:00

A couple of pictures of one of my favourite species, the tiny and gorgeus Leptolebias aureoguttatus "Paranaguá"

Nothobranchius virgatus Wadi Al Ghallah SD10-5

2014-10-22T09:23:00.001-07:00

Hypsolebias trifasciatus, new species by Nielsen, Martins, Araujo, Origuela and Faour 2014

2014-08-20T08:28:00.002-07:00

After our discovery during a collecting trip in January, 2014 Hypsolebias trifasciatus, Dalton Nielsen, Mayler Martin, Luciano Medeiros, Fábio Origuela and Amer Faour, has been described from a temporary pool on the left bank of the Rio Preto, a tributary of the Rio Sao Francisco, in Brazil.

It belongs to the adornatus complex, having more similarities to Hypsolebias lopesi, Nielsen, Shibatta, Suzart and Faour, 2010.

It's a beautiful species, with an aggressive behaviour and quick growth and maturing. Sex-ratio is quite heavy towards males.

The male:

Hypsolebias trifasciatus BR2014/2. Picture by Francisco Falcon

The female:

Hypsolebias trifasciatus BR2014/2. Picture by Francisco Falcon

The biotope is a huge temporary pool crowded with Hypsolebias trifasciatus:

Hypsolebias trifasciatus BR2014/2 biotope. Picture by Amer Faour

Austrolebias gymnoventris Castillos

2014-02-19T06:09:00.002-08:00

Austrolebias gymnoventris Castillos, young male

This species, along with Austrolebias luteoflammulatus, was for many years a myth (at least for me). I'd say that Austrolebias luteoflammulatus still is but it's just a matter of time that someone gets to breed and spread them. The first time I kept gymnoventris was about 15 years ago, the population was also very nice: Velázquez. There was this sort of theory that claimed that you needed to provide them green water to keep them healthy. I traded some species with a very nice french breeder and he sent me a good batch of eggs and I managed to breed them quite successfully with standard parameters. I lost the species (as well as many others) after a sad glugea "attack".

Austrolebias gymnoventris Velázquez, adult male

This time (thanks to the outstandingly poor service of Heber Salvia, which I related a few days ago) I had to try with 6 eggs. I've been lucky and I hope that I can start getting eggs soon and distributing it. I'll try to update any news regarding them here.

Cynolebias griseus Nova Roma

2014-02-14T18:08:00.000-08:00

Cynolebias griseus "Nova Roma BR2014/5"

Cynolebias griseus is only know from Nova Roma (GO) where can be found together with Hypsolebias flammeus and Hypsolebias notatus. It's habitat is highly endangered.

This species is not as big as most Cynolebias species (maybe with Cyn. gilbertoi) but it doesn't make them less agressive. It's the only Cynolebias species found outside the Sao Francisco river basin.

This picture shows a very young male.

More Spectrolebias costai :)

2014-02-06T16:28:00.001-08:00

Another picture of a stunning Spectrolebias costai São Miguel do Araguaia RR 03/08

Hypsolebias notatus Nova Roma

2014-02-05T05:27:00.000-08:00

Hypsolebias notatus "Nova Roma BR2014/5"

This beautiful species is quite well spread in Goiás state. It can be found in at least 3 locations: Alvorada do Norte, Vila Boa and Nova Roma. There are some differences between those populations and who knows if some day any of them will become a different species. The Vila Boa one has been labeled as Aff. notatus so far. By the way, at Vila Boa we can also find Hypsolebias brunoi.

At Nova Roma we can find Hypsolebias notatus simpatrically with Cynolebias griseus and Hypsolebias flammeus.

Dissapointing experience ordering eggs from Heber Salvia

2014-02-04T08:19:00.001-08:00

Most of uruguaian austrolebias are very beautiful species and not so wide spread. Some of them are known to be quite difficult and many people failed distributing them.

One of the logical sources should be the local breeders but in this case I encourage you to try another supplier. In case you are thinking about ordering some eggs to Heber Salvia (from Uruguay) please read this and think twice before doing it.

I made a big order (12 peats) to him together with a few friends. 200 US$ worth and many hopes involved.

After several weeks we received the parcel with those completely unprotected bags and the first thing I noticed was that there was a bag of gymnoventris missing and one more of arachan Bañados del Chuy. Next thing I made was count the eggs with the dissapointing result of one bag with 4 eggs (arachan Parque Rivera) several bags with 6-7 eggs (gymnoventris), three bags of luteoflammulatus with 12-13 eggs (in one of them there was a huge egg of what I guess must be cheradophilus). and some more with 15-17 eggs. I also found 2 bags (charrua and viarus) with more than 30 eggs.

The date of collection of the peat was quite old in most of the cases (3 - 3,5 months).

I wrote him complaining about all the mistakes and ridiculous eggs' number in some cases but I received no answer from him.

A few months later, In one of the luteoflammulatus peats I have hatched and raised two fish that are starting to look like a bellotti, we'll see what finally comes out...

Summarizing: he swapped one peat, most of the bags contained a very reduced number of eggs and also mixed eggs of different species in some bags. Amazing!!! Best of all, he refused to give any explanation or amend... just ignored my e-mail.

Please be aware of this guy.

Spectrolebias costai Aruanã vs São Miguel do Araguaia

2013-11-07T06:09:00.001-08:00

I put two Spectrolebias costai pictures together to see the main differences between the Aruanã and São Miguel do Araguaia populations.

We should not consider the body color as a difference because it strongly depends on the fish's stress situation and sometimes they only show the solid black color while courting or spawning. However, I would say that the São Miguel do Araguaia one seems to mantain that solid black color more permanently. This feature also explains while you can't observe a reddish fins' color on this population that sometimes appears both in the Aruanã and Formoso do Araguaia populations).

The blue/green color of the dots and fins' borders it's not a difference either but a different reflex of light while making the picture. Both of them have a similar (if not the same) blueish color in the flesh. Once I have said this, I can say I have seen a greenish costai (in the flesh) while collecting in the terra typica of Plesiolebias canabravensis and Maratecoara splendida.

You can have a look at the Formoso do Araguaia pop here. It's similar to the São Miguel do Araguaia one in the lack of blue dots, but shares with the Aruanã population the loss of the black body's color when the fish is stressed. In the first picture you can also see the reddish color I referred to a few lines above.

Spectrolebias costai São Miguel do Araguaia RR 03-08

2013-11-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

This is a very beautiful population collected in 2008 and distributed widely (specially in Brazil). It seems that thanks to this population this species is going to be in many tanks worlwide for a long time as previous attempts (as with Aruanã population in the late 90's and Formoso do Araguaia between 2003-2008) failed. I distributed many eggs of the Formoso do Araguaia population in 2007-2008 and nowadays is almost lost...

Compared to the Spectrolebias costai from the TT, São Miguel do Araguaia's costai have a darker, almost black, body and much less blue dots. Females have a distinct pattern also, and even more different from the Aruanã females than the males are. They are very nice as well and I'll try to show them to you as soon as possible.

A real jewel, I hope that you can enjoy them yourselves in your tanks.

Notholebias minimus eggs

2013-09-15T06:24:00.001-07:00

Almost 20 years ago -obrigado Francisco- I received some eggs of Notholebias minimus (Leptolebias by that time) for the first time. The population was Barra da Tijuca, and I really loved those little and colored fish. Looking backwards I'd say that Barra da Tijuca population is the nicest I've ever seen. You can see it by yourself:

Watching them carefully with a simple magnifying lens I could notice that the eggs were different from other SAA I was keeping those days, the eggs were very small, ambarine and their surface was covered by small filaments. I remember that I wondered why would they develope such an interesting structure. Anyway I have kept that "hairy egg" image in my mind since then.

A few months ago I received from the very same person a new batch of eggs of Notholebias minimus "Campo Grande 01/12". They hatched really soon and in 6 weeks I had nice sexed out youngsters ready to spawn. This population is also awesome, I'll try to picture them myself soon, but meanwhile you can know how this new population looks like thanks to Fernando Gonçalvez:

N. minimus "Campo Grande" by Fernando Gonçalvez:

I collected their first eggs a couple of weeks ago. Watching them under the microscope I instantly recognised the egg type, like the picture stored in my mind over two decades:

But having a look at some other eggs of the batch I found this so much different type of egg:

There is no way I have mixed eggs of two different species out (I always boil the peat before adding it to the aquarium, and besides of that I keep no species that spawn such a small egg apart from the Ples. aruana, that also produce those "hairy" eggs as I showed a few publications before).

45 days later I found out that those different kinds of eggs are perfect, healthy embryoned eggs as you can see in this video:

Is there any scientific explanation? Can they produce two different kinds of eggs?

Spectrolebias costai "BAF 13/04, Aruanã"

2013-09-13T15:11:00.001-07:00

Spectrolebias costai, one of the most beautiful SAA species and one of my favourite ones, was discovered in 1982 by Luiz Costa in a pond quite close to the brazilian locality of Aruanã (Goiás). It was described in 1991 by Lazara

Spectrolebias costai has a wide distribution and there are at least 4 known populations: the type locality, Formoso do Araguaia, Alvorada-Peixe and São Miguel do Araguaia.

The species can be found sharing habitat with many other killifish species depending on the population. In Aruanã it lives simpatrically with Maratecoara lacortei, Trigonectes rubromarginatus, Pituna poranga and Plesiolebias aruana; in Alvorada-Peixe it shares pond with Plesiolebias canabravensis, Pituna compacta and Maratecoara splendida. In Formoso do Araguaia we can collect it also with with Plesiolebias fragilis, Spectrolebias semiocellatus, Trigonectes rubromarginatus, Pituna poranga and Maratecoara lacortei,

The picture shows the Aruanã population.

Aphyosemion herzogi GEMGV 12/12

2013-09-03T08:06:00.001-07:00

Plesiolebias aruana "BAF 13/03, Aruanã" egg

2013-09-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

Huevo de Plesiolebias aruana "Aruanã" visto en microscopio. Los huevos de esta especie miden menos de un 1 mm. de diámetro.

Plesiolebias aruana "Aruanã" egg under the microscope. This species' eggs are less than 1 mm in diameter.

Aphyosemion mimbon GEMG 11/24

2013-08-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

Plesiolebias aruana "BAF 13/03 Aruanã"

2013-05-07T01:58:00.000-07:00

Plesiolebias aruana was discovered in 1982 by Luiz Costa in a pond quite close to the brazilian locality of Aruanã (Goiás). It was found with Spectrolebias costai and Maratecoara lacortei in the very same pond. Lazara described it in 1991.

Old times - Brasil 1993 - Un poco de nostalgia

2008-06-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

Quiero mostrar el que, en mi opinión, fue el viaje de colecta más interesante de los realizados en Brasil hasta ahora, especialmente por el momento en que se produjo y por las especies que dio a conocer en el hobby. Creo que la llegada de especies como Cynolebias (en su día eran cynolebias) magnificus, flavicaudatus, flammeus, griseus, etc a más de uno nos hizo olvidarnos de los demás killis y centrarnos en los anuales brasileños. Sin duda para mí fue fundamental.
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I'd like to show what IMHO was the most interesting collecting trip to Brasil till now, specially for the moment it happened and the species it made popular into the hobby. I think that the arrival of species like Cynolebias (like they were called by then) magnificus, flavicaudatus, flammeus, griseus, etc made more than one (like me) to forget about the rest of the killifish to focus on the brazilian annuals. Without any doubt, it was basical.
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Eu gostaria mostrar o que, na minha opinião, foi a viagem de coleta ao Brasil mais interessante até agora, em especial pelo momento em que aconteceu e pelas espécies que levaram ao hobby. Acho que a chegada de espécies como as Cynolebias (assim chamavam-se no momento) magnificus, flavicaudatus, flammeus, griseus, etc, fez mais de um (como eu) esquecer do resto dos killis e nos centrar nos anuais brasileiros. Sem dúvida foi fundamental

BR93 - Brasil 93 - Dale Weber, Dalton Nielsen, Al Carletto y Ruud Wildekamp - Febrero 1993

BR 93/1 - CARAGUATATUBA: Rivulus santensis.

BR 93/2 - UBATUBA: Rivulus santensis.

BR 93/3 - CAVA-TINGUA: Rivulus janeiroensis (TT de Leptolebias nanus).

BR 93/4 - SAN FRANCISCO (Minas Gerais): Cynolebias sp.

BR 93/5 - Km 42 Ctra SAN FRANCISCO - JANUARIA: Cyn.aff. flavicaudatus, Cyn.perforatus.

BR 93/6 - Ctra. JANUARIA - MANGA (53 km N de Januaria y 8 km S de Levinopolis): Cyn. aff. flavicaudatus.

BR 93/7 - ITACARIMBI (1 km al N dirección Manga): Cyn.aff.flavicaudatus, Cyn.magnificus, Cyn.albipunctatus.

BR 93/8 - GUARAPUAVA: Cyn.zonatus.

BR 93/9 - RIO SANTANA: Rivulus pictus (TT de Cyn. santanae).

BR 93/10 - NOVA ROMA (Goiás): Cyn.flammeus, Cyn.griseus y Cyn.notatus.

BR 93/11 - ARUANA: Ples.aruana, Cyn.costai, Cyn.lacortei, Trig. rubromarginatus, Pituna poranga.

BR 93/12 - Ctra ARUANA - ARUANAPAZ: Riv. aff. violaceus.

BR 93/13 - NOVA CRIXAS: Riv. aff. violaceus.

BR 93/14 - JUSSARA: Rivulus sp.

BR 93/15 - Ctra RIO VERDE a JATAI (47 km W): Rivulus pinima.

BR 93/16 - Ctra JATAI a SAO SIMAO: Rivulus vittatus.

BR 93/17 - CUIABA (Matto Grosso): Trigonectes balzanii.

BR 93/18 - Ctra CUIABA - CACERES: Trigonectes balzanii.

BR 93/20 - BATAGUASSU: Rivulus apiamici (TT).