of Burma, where it, according to aquarium enthusiasts occurs far to the north and also high up in the mountains. Reports that in Putao, the “classic” type local- ity of the species, it sometimes even snows, should be regarded with caution. At least my B. cory-
caeus, which are definitely from
Putao, prefer to be kept warm. At least under 23 ° C they do not show any spawning activity and a cold winter period, neither they nor their grandparents have required over the years. Badis
corycaeus in both sexes is yel-
lowish- to reddish-brown with darker transverse bands. Males in their mating colors become dark reddish brown to burgundy with very striking bright white ventral fin leading edges and an equally bright white dorsal fin seam.
from the left
Badis corycaeus-female
(Picture: K.-H. Roßmann)
Badis cf. kanabos-female
(Picture: K.-H. Roßmann)
Badis ruber „Pathain“
80 Der Makropode – Volume 31 – 2 / 2009
Achtung
Preise auf letzte Seite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Badis ferrarisi kullander & Britz,2002, which I myself have not kept, comes from the Myitkina district in northern Burma. It differs from all other Badis by the fact that the crossbands on the body do not extend over the whole body , but cover only bar- code like the middle of the body. Its basic color is a muddy reddish brown with intense brown fin seams. Badis ruber, B Khwae.
and B. siamensis form the Badis
ruber group. It is distinguished
by the following characteristics: no dark anterior dorsal fin rays, no post opercular spot, caudal spot not exactly on the tail base, but moved forward a little, in
B. ruber and B. siamensis also
moved upward.
Badis ruber sCHreitmüller, 1923,
which was formerly falsely known as burmanicus, lives in southern and central Burma, where as its congeners, inhab- its standing and slowly flowing small bodies of water. It is red- dish brown in both sexes, with the usual badis-cross lines which can be covered by longitudinal rows of dots. Males in breeding colors are dark burgundy, and the longitudinal rows of dots appear to be black with a green shine.
Badis khwae kullander & Britz,
2002 inhabits western Thailand
at the originof the Menam Khwae Noi, in the tourist jargon better known as River Quai. B. khwae females are reddish brown with a caudal spot located, although in the middle, a little before the final cross bow . The males during courtship and parental care are colored dark burgundy with a striking bright seam on the dorsal fin, which also has a red base.
Badis siamensis klausewitz,
1957, comes from the west coast of southern Thailand and the offshore islands. Known localities are Khao Lak and the island Phuket. The fish are ocher brown in color with darker lon- gitudinally oriented rows. The caudal spot is located at an angle slightly before the base and slightly above the center of the tail, but is much smaller than in B. ruber. Breeding males are stained dark chocolate brown with whiteseamed dorsal fins. We’ll continue now with the two “dissidents” who display a very different way of life and there- fore also differ significantly in the aquarium maintenance from the other Badis. First Badis assa-
mensis aHl, 1937, and B. blosyrus
kullander & Britz, 2002. These
fish are occasionally imported from India., where B. blosyrus has been described from from North Bengal and B. assamen-
sis, as the name suggests, has
been reported from Assam. The distinction between B. blosyrus and B. assamensis is not so easy, mainly because one species was described from adult fish and the
other from very small juveniles. Anyway there are two different forms available in the stores, which have differently pointed mouths. And that leads us imme- diately to the main characteristic of these type (s), their predatory lifestyle. The fish have a deeply divided, big mouth and are able to eat huge chunks. Earthworms, equally long as the fish, are not a problem. Co-inhabitation with these fish is therefore a problem.
Badis assamensis / blosyrus prey
on smaller fish at night. Fish that have been ignored completely during the day are gone the next morning. Hence these fish do are not just similar in appear- ance to their cousins, the Nan-
didae. Regarding the size, both
forms dominate considerably the other Badis species, adult males can easily reach 9 cm Regarding color the fish cannot be confused with any other Badis, the ani- mals are light ocher, with irregu- lar rows of dark spots, which on the pebble bottom of a stream bed makes them perfectly cam- ouflaged. The fish have as all members of the Badis group a dorsal spot and a central caudal spot, but the black spot, which in all representatives of the Badis group lies behind the gill cover is in B. assamensis / blosyrus located on the gill cover. Males ready to breed change their color from stone-red to dark burgundy, to almost black, with a thin bright blue seam at the edge of the fins.
Badis assamensis / blosyrus are
also “sand fish” in their behav- ior, who appreciate a flat-lying stone where under they will dig a hole on their own. A continu- ous breeding setup, which is in all other Badis no problem, does not succeed in B. assamensis
/ blosyrus. Apparently the fish
effectively hunt their own off- spring.
Badis sp. „Buxar“,named after
the Buxar Tiger Reserve in north Bengal, from where the first imports have arrived, differs in several respects from all other from the left
Badis siamensis „Phuket“
Fry/Juvenile Badis blosyrus (both pictures: K.-H. Roßmann)
Achtung
Preise auf letzte Seite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Der Makropode – Volume 31 – 2 / 2009 81
representatives of the Badidae. The fish is undoubtedly to be regarded as a separate unde- scribed species. It is because of it’s pattern considered a member of the corycaeus group, but in addition to their pattern have a dumbbell-shaped mark, which is formed by one dark spot in the soft part of dorsal and anal fins and connecting horizontal stripes between the two spots. Fully col- ored the fish are wine red with a turquoise seam on the edge of the dorsal fin. The ventral fins of
B. sp. “Buxar are” in contrast to
those of the other Badis pointed and curved backwards. The fish rests on these fins similar like a sled on it’s runners for exam- ple, since Badis sp. “Buxar is a belly sliders with a goby-like reduced air-bladder function and the corresponding swim- ming behaviour. The fish live in fast-flowing streams and there- fore need flowing oxygen-rich water. If their demands are met,
sp. “Buxar” are very appealing
aquarium fish. They are a maxi- mum of 4.5 cm in size and are much more lively than the other
Badis. Even if their territoria are
quite small, they are vigorously defended, making the fish lovely little poison dwarfs. Breeding is similar to other Badis, where B.
sp. “Buxar is” in my experience
the Badis with the largest eggs. The genus Dario was separated
from the genus Badis by Kul- lander and Britz in their article. To anyone who saw the first imported Dario, it had to be clear that these belonged in a separate genus. Despite that a notoriously fast writer already described them as a new kind of Badis, although he knew that Kullander & Britz were working on their article. Britz and Kullander then found out this “new” species had already been described. Our man had on top of that not done his homework. The species of the genus Dario are smaller than those of the genus Badis. The largest known species of Dario is
only 3.5 cm long. Dario have very elongated ventral fins, they can extend to the end of the anal fin when pressed against the body. Of the typical Badis traits, only, and only in some species, the dorsal spot can be seen. All Dario species are colored predomi- nantly red, and some are down- right bright red. The females are inconspicuously yellow-gray with dark cross bands, more or less pronounced. The currently known distribution area ranges from North Bengal via Assam and Bangladesh to northern Burma. One species, Dario dayingensis, even exceeds the border into China. The Dario species are fun- damentally different from Badis in their reproductive behavior. All Badis are all obligatory cave spawners, Dario spawns in moss or algae pads, where the laid eggs until the free swimming stage are guarded by the par- ents. The females are lured to the spawning site with a very lively, almost butterfly-like courtship. The eggs, which are not so pro- tected by the surroundings like in Badis species, must therefore be defended intensely. Dario are for their size amazingly assertive and their territoria are also much bigger than we would give these little guys credit for. The fry are significantly smaller than that of the Badis species and feeding cannot under any circumstances be done at once with artemia nauplii. For intensive high-yield breeding rotifers or infusoria must be provided. The continu- ous breeding setup, where in densely planted aquaria fry are raised with their parents, is a
highly recommended method, but works only really well if we feed additional infusoria or at least micro worms. This is also very good for the adults, because they eat, the same as Badis, only live food. And that should be according to the size of the fish, so very small. Another down- side, Dario cannot be fed on a permanent basis with Artemia, though, or perhaps because they like them very much. Exclusive or predominant feeding with
Artemia, sooner or later leads
to a fatty liver. For the rest is keeping Dario fairly simple. The water values do not matter and because of the northern distribu- tion area a heater in the aquar- ium is unnecessary.
Dario dario (Hamilton, 1822) is
the first imported, and the small- est known species. Its natural habitat is in north Bengal, where they can live with Badis badis and Badis blosyrus in the same waters. The fish were first intro- duced with the trade name Badis „scarlet“ “, a name which is even now still seen occasionally. After a hasty first description, they then sailed under the flag “Badis
bengalensis” Tomey, 1999, until
Kullander and Britz realized that the fish had first been described a hundred and eighty years ago and took the logical step, and
from the left
Dario dario-male
(Picture: K.-H. Roßmann)
Dario sp. „Tiger“
82 Der Makropode – Volume 31 – 2 / 2009
Achtung
Preise auf letzte Seite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
established a new genus Dario
dario. Dario dario is almost 2cm
long, and is considered the smallest known perch-like fish. The caudal fin is straightly trun- cated at the end and the ventral fins of males are very long. There are no dark markings, only the females bear more or less dis- tinct dark cross bands on a light gray background. The males are spectacularly colorful, bright red with turquoise blue stripes, especially the blue rimmed elon- gated pelvic fins, and when in breeding mood, the whole fish looks like its illuminated from within.
Dario hysginon kullander &
Britz, 2002, also known under the
trade name “Flame Red“, lives in northern Burma. At 2.5 cm it is slightly larger as D. dario and is colored monochromatic red and marked only with a black dorsal
spot. The females are a light rusty brown color. They too show the dorsal spot occasionally.
Dario sp. „Black Tiger“ is a yet
undescribed species of which not even the natural origin is known, because the importers keep silent on the subject. It is suspected to occur in northern Bangladesh. Black Tiger is next
to Dario dayingensis the largest
known Dario, it is about 3 cm long. For Dario ratios it is also very high. The main attraction in this species is the tail fin, which like any other Dario is truncated but at the edges has elongated fin tips. The ventral fins are very long, they can in fully grown males reach the tail fin and are very conspicuous because of their black color. The fish go through a distinct color change in their life. After the light-brown juvenile color, young males first show a red-brown color with dark stripes. When the fish get larger, the dark stripes at the front are widening and the stripes ate the rear are narrowing until the fish front is black and from the middle it is bright red.
In addition to the here pre-
sented, for the most part already bred Badidae, there are quite a few already described, but not yet imported species, and also some already imported, but not yet described forms. The fish- trade tends, as is well-known, to care little or not at all about valid names. The fish are named in a way so they sell well. Many new or rarely imported Badi-
dae are sold under flase names.
For Badis sp. „Buxar“ and B. cf.
kanabos that was also the case.
So if Badis badis are offered in large numbers in the trade and if they are declared as Wildcaught, it’s worth it to take a closer look. Even if it turns out to be “only” normal Badis badis.
Literature
kuLLander, s. & Britz, r. 2002.
Revision of the family Badidae (Teleostei: Perciformes), with description of a genus and ten new species. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, Vol.
13(4): 295-372.
Voort, s. Vd. 2008. Einige ausge-
fallene Blaubarsche. Amazonas, 4, Nr. 20: 45-50.
from the left
Dario hyshinon and Dario sp. Dario sp.-female
Dario sp.-male
Achtung
Preise auf letzte Seite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Der Makropode – Volume 31 – 2 / 2009 83
With the following article I would like to contribute to the overall pic- ture of this fish species. For more than 50 years I have, apart from short breaks, exclusively tended to the care and breeding of Nan- didae. So I have kept, and even bred: Polycentrus, Polycentropsis,
Monocirrhus, Nandus nebulosus
and N. nandus. The last one only I have now kept and bred for the past 10 years. I have collected information from the literature and included it within this essay in order to be complete.
On Systematics
Kullander & Britz (2002) restricted the family of Nandidae to the genus Nandus with the species
N. nandus, N. nebulosus, N. oxy- rhynchus and newly added, N. andrewi *. The genera Polycentrus, Polycentropsis and Monocirrhus
have been placed in the family of Polycentridae. As for Afronandus I tend to believe they are Nandidae. But to my knowledge there is still not sufficient aquarium evidence on the reproductive biology. The
genera Polycentrus, Polycentrop-
sis and Monocirrhus also differ
a lot from the Nandus species according to my observations so that separation is only logical.
Anatomy and appearance
The fin formula is: D XII/XIV/11-13, A III/7-9. The soft rays portion of the dorsal and anal fins are sharply divided as in the Polycentridae and rounded. The fish have ctenoid scales, scales with a thorny free edge. The total length according to literature data reaches 15 cm (females), an indication that I can confirm in, for example, six-year old fish. The elongated body has a typical perch-like form, the muzzle is pointed, as in the Polycentridae far protrudable. Numerous sharp
teeth in the jaws, palate and on the tongue ensure the retention of the prey, especially fish. The ani- mals in my posession vary in color from dark olive to bright-yellow metallic, especially in the twilight. The sides are marked with dark spots, which coalesce to cross lines. The spiny dorsal and anal fin and the rounded tail fin have a mottled appearance forming lines. The typical blaze in Polycen- tridae is also frequently visible in
Nandus. The intestine, charac-
teristic of a faunivore, piscivore fish, shows only a few turns, the stomach is sac shaped and very expandable. Nandus is a visually oriented predator. The lateral line is interrupted, and in my experi- ence plays only a minor role in the acquisition of prey. In water with sufficient oxygen, breathing