Re: [Killietalk] N. Korthausae Mafia Island Locations

[Brian Watters <bwatters at shaw_ca>]

Kevin Shepard wrote:

>
> ya Brian... what Tom said, don't be discouraged.
>
> I used to buy species I was interested in with little
> regard to whether they were listed with a location
> code or not, and without checking to see it was valid
>
> now I find myself giving aquarium strains a miss,
> in fact I pass on auctions that have misspelled
> genus/specie/locations. even I can be trained.
>
> I see "Beria 98" offered on aquabid all the time.
>

Thanks.

I would like to endorse and emphasize what Keith Cook wrote in that is that
there is nothing wrong with "aquarium" strains (lacking a location code). My
point is that if a fish is collected in the wild, and introduced into the
hobby with that location code, then that code should be regarded as an
essential component of the unique identity of the strain.

Let me give you one example that illustrates the importance of maintaining
location codes:

In a recent issue of JAKA we published a new species description for
Nothobranchius cardinalis. When this Notho was first collected it was
regarded as simply another population of N. rubripinnis, even though the
distribution areas were more than 300 kilometers apart with no obvious
links.

Fortunately, most hobbyists have retained the location codes of the strains
derived from the two populations so that we can now say that any Notho
previously referred to as:

"N. rubripinnis Mbwemkuru River KTZ 85-28" and "N. rubripinnis Lisinjiri
River TAN 97-27"

 should now be known as:

N. cardinalis Mbwemkuru River KTZ 85-28 and N. cardinalis Lisinjiri River
TAN 97-27.

If the collection codes of the original populations of N. rubripinnis and
what we now know as N. cardinalis had not been retained it is likely that we
would have a whole lot of hybrids between the two species in the hobby. In
fact, that is likely to have happened in some cases because not all
hobbyists have been diligent about retaining the location codes. What this
means is that there is a good possibility that some "Aquarium strains" of N.
rubripinnis may actually be hybrids.

One of the problems with hybrid Nothos, as Barry Cooper has pointed out, is
that very often they become progressively less viable with each generation.

By the way Kevin, the location name of the N. rachovi you refer to as
appearing on Aquabid is "Beira 98" not "Beria 98". Beira is a large city on
the coast of Mozambique, near which that population was collected.
___________________________
Brian Watters
6141 Parkwood Drive
Nanaimo, BC, V9T 6A2
Canada
Ph: (250) 760-0564
E-mail: bwatters at shaw_ca

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