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Aphyosemion arnoldi
Tom,
I didn't mean to imply that you didn't know what you were doing. That
was not my intent at all. Contrary to what you might think, the older
material on killies is not bad at all. Let's take an example. They use to
recommend "old" "acid" water for killies. Well, think about it. Most areas
have hard alkaline water. Besides rain water or distilled water back then,
what turns water acid and maybe even soft depending on circumstances -- OLD
does. They had the wrong chemical method but they were going in the right
direction. The old ideas of never changing water -- well, how many times have
we discovered that certain fish finally work when left alone and even when
water is not changed? Now their remarks on the care of eggs and the
conditioning of breeders and the raising of fry are all first rate. In
Tusche's piece on arnoldi, he comments on the female problem and how to work
with it. He also comments on egg storage temperatures and develop times. He
is very clear about incubation process. He discusses the eggs being sensitive
to light and he talks about the fry having trouble hatching once developed --
sounds pretty up-to-date to me. Its about a 3 page, tiny type article. Even
though old, it is definitely worth a look.
I always start with the oldest references and work my up. Dismissing
this stuff as dated is sad. It beats most of the stuff that makes it to the
internet -- hands down.
Look at occidentalis. The old way of breeding it was to store the eggs
in water for months. Then that was switched to peat incubation. In recent
years, people have returned to water incubation. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
In the 1930's, when Cynolebias were first introduced and everyone was
trying to find out how to breed them, a guy in Argentina wrote to Innes and
Innes published the letter. It would seem that the hobbyists in Argentina had
already worked out a method of breeding their annuals in the aquarium that
was quite successful and close to what we do today. For some reason, in later
years, people ignored this wonderful gem of information -- I guess they
thought it was older than they were so useless -- and then preceeded to
re-discover similar methods in Germany and here after the war. Nothing like
the excitment of re-inventing the wheel every year for the sake of "progress"
and "newness."
I realized after I sent my post that I should have said EXPORTER and
not IMPORTER as that was what I meant and my meaning was still blatantly
clear from the context. I think Lucanus is fine and wish there were more like
him as there were in the old days. My POINT is why hasn't the AKA made real
use of him? Also the secrecy that seems so indulged when it comes to species
maintanence lists and the like did not seem to serve very well if the arnoldi
case is taken as an example. Had the word been put out instead of traded
among a few "trusted experienced pros" maybe arnoldi would not have been
selling in Montreal pet shops as Gary said. Its funny to me, but in dealing
with Scheel, Roloff, Maier, LaCorte, Foersch, etc... I never got the feeling
that they thought of themselves as better or more deserving or a special
group. They always seemed to be open to everyone and lived to spread
knowledge and fish. I kind of selfish, greedy, "I have something that you
don't have" mentality has become accepted as "ok" in this country since
Reagan and the rise of the Boomers. It shows itself in a thousand small ways.
I believe it is the root of the problem.
Robert E.
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