[RML] Re: Mel parva - was Just some facts

christian_vanbelle (christian_vanbelle at yahoo.com)
Fri, 11 Feb 2005 12:00:47 -0000

--- In r_m_l at yahoogroups.com, Scott Davis <unclescott at p...> wrote:
> >Now return to the fish : I've found a wonderful
> Melanotaenia parva school. They are F2 from wild.
> Very pretty fish.
>
> Christian, are these (at least the males?) a deep red,
> almost cherry red fish? TFH magazine (February 2005)
> ran an article by Heiko Bleher on his 1999 collection
> of parva. I was surprised by the intensity of the
> mature males' red, which contrasted in a very striking
> manner with a dark stretch on the sides behind their
> gills.
>
> Didn't remember such colors in Allen's book. When that
> photo was again looked at (on page 136), it seems to
> be on a table. One can guess it would been removed
> from a preservative, placed on a lab table and
> photographed. Dr. Allen noted that it had not been
> kept in captivity as of the publication of his book,
> though he originally collected it in 1989, from a very
> obscure spot, and described it in 1990.
>
> Allen's discussion of it's colors suggested variable
> fish. "Males are either a bluish to mauve with a black
> mid-lateral stripe or silvery with red speckling and
> narrow red stripes between each scale row on the side
> of the body."
>
> Bleher's article also includes the image of a
> semi-adult with very unexceptional colors. Could the
> fish pictured in the 2002 All Rainbows and related
> families likewise be youngster?
>
> Probably wouldn't be the first time aquarists were
> surprised by males who finally matured and colored up.
> :)
>
> Thanks and all the best!
> Scott