The test was mandated by the Malaysian trumpet snails that managed to
survive the gross treatment, and crawled out of the gravel after re-filling
the tank. Grrr! *Nothing* kills 'em, short of boiling, and I'm not sure
about that. ;-) I doubted if they carry marinum, but decided to play it
safe.
Anyway, a month later, all fish are healthy and I may have miraculously
ended up with three pairs of them.
The problem I have now is getting a decent ID on them. They are young, and
still lack the deep bodies of the pictures in my Aqualog book and chart. The
most mature and dominant male has dark borders on anal and dorsal fin, as
well as leading edge of the ventrals. The side is a steely blue
irridescence, with a prominent dark lateral line. Caudal is red-orange, and
the other unpaired fins have the same color in a band just inside the dark
outer borders. Inner fins are pretty clear.
The closest picture I have handy is the M. splendida australis of the
Aqualog poster, and it looks about right.
The upper left picture in Adrian's description
<http://www.powerup.com.au/~tappin/Australis.htm> is pretty close, too. Mine
have less body gold and more prominent dark fin-edge bands. They lack any
sign of a zig-zag stripe above the anal fin, like the Armstrong picture.
They have less color than the picture on p 40 of Harro's book.
Since they have suddenly decided to give me lots of eggs, I may soon be
faced with having to identify them to those I pass fish on to.
How should I label them? M. splendida australis? splendida sp.? What is best
for the hobby?
Thanks,
Wright
-- Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntley1 at home.com"Strike any key to continue..." How? My stupid keyboard doesn't even have an "any" key!