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Re: gardneri gold was A. hera TDK 97/30
> Anybody know where there is a picture of GAR gold ? None of my books
have...
Hey Boat!
I was surprised to not find a photo of a gold or xanthic gardneri in any of
the books at hand - exactly what you had suggested would happen.
There are two shots on the BKA site at http://www.bka.freeuk.com/piclib.htm
. They also illustrate a problem in identifying the "real" gold gardneri in
that they show a gold form of Nsukka and a gold Misaje.
Bob Meyer, last summer, (on this list) brought our attention to the fact
that there were several forms of gold gardneri in the hobby. Certainly there
were at least two types at the National Convention in Chicago.
Tim Addis added to the discussion, on a couple of occasions, and maintained
that the original gold gardneri was a Nsukka variant. There was a lively
discussion on variants of albinism on the livebearers' list recently. To my
surprise (that happens a lot) some people considered several combinations of
missing pigmentation as types of albino. Some correspondents even included
the fishes with less black (the xanthic types which could include our gold
gardneri, gold N. guentheri - that I think Ed Warner developed? - and more
common fair like the golden angelfish and gouramis).
The variations of gold gardneri are a more recent phenomenon, in my limited
experience. Mr. Addis on July 30 had quite a bit to say about this too. I
take the liberty of including his observations that:
The original Gold gardneri (in the UK at least) was bred by my mate Alan
Green who found a pale gold form in amoungst a true batch of Nsukka. These
were line bred within the population so you could call it Nsukka Gold if you
wanted. It's still a pure Nsukka & not a X breed.
If you mess with Misaje you will introduce another sub-species into the
blood line (ie gardneri gardneri X gardneri nigerianum).
Nsukka is a highly variable population & originally made it's debut in the
UK as a yellow phase. Shortly after Roger Gladwell brought me a blue phase
Nsukka (pure) which he found in a batch of young for me to photograph.
Your white phase is not that unusual in this population.
As far as I'm aware there is no gold form purely derived from Misaje
(anybody no if there is ?)
I have a strain that pretty closely matches what I remember as the
"original" gold gardneri. (Who knows though if it is "pureblooded"?) I
bought another striking pair at the AKA convention and upon bringing them
home, noticed the strong red bands in the unpaired fins - so characteristic
of the various "yellow gardneris". I reluctantly gave the newer killies to a
friend in a local general aquaristic group, reasoning that what I had was
closer to the original aquarium sport or strain.
Those particular fish breed like rabbits by the way. (or maybe rabbits
almost breed as freely as gardneri). A couple have been a little deformed.
That could be credited to sloppy care (my fault - too few water changes) on
that tank. The batch going now are in a well planted tank to weather the
vicissitudes of a busy year. There are several sizes of youngsters growing
up...
Some people have reported declining fertility among their gold gardneri. It
could be speculated that the decline in fertility may relate to the mixed
heritage of the strains. Scheel even found some strains of gardneri (not
many) which were very difficult to cross.
All the best!
Scott
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