While preparing the pond to add tropicals for the season, I discovered much to my delight that there were two medium sized Chapalichthys pardalis already in the pond. I'm pretty sure they didn't jump out of the indooor tank, migrate outside and climb mount improbable to spend their holidays in the pond, so the only reasonable explaination is that they survived the winter. Last fall I emptied the pond of all the fish, excepting the two koi. I was very thorough in their removal and was sure I did not miss any. These two must have been only fry to have outwitted me - perhaps I should restate that. Anywho, they survived through what was luckily a mild winter, but even so, the pond certainly got down into the low 40s and I'm pretty sure I measured temps in the high 30s.

There is some question as to whether Limia melanonotata as described by Nichols & Myers in 1923 [1] is the same fish as Limia perugiae described in 1906 by Evermann & Clark [2], and as to whether one or both fish are common in the hobby. Recently, I reviewed both original descriptions, and I believe they provide enough information to be able to distinguish the two fishes. As to whether L. melanonotata is a dimorphic form of L. perugiae, I'll leave that to the taxonomists to hammer out.

In 1906 when Evermann & Clark wrote their paper, they described a fish, Platypoecilius perugiae, that in 1983 was reclassified into the genus Limia. When Nichols & Myers described Limia melanonotata in 1923, they recognized only two other known species (arnoldi and nigrofasciata) from the Dominican Republic, as well as Limia zonata which was at the time placed in the genus Heterandria; they thought "to consider it as yet another species of Limia". Nichols & Myers failed to consider the only other Limia species known to be from the island at that time; Limia dominicensis which was described by Valenciennes in 1846 as Poecilia, but reclassified by Poey in 1854. Limia arnoldi would later be recognized as a synonym for Limia nigrofasciata. Several other Limia species from the island were previously described, but under different Genuses, and as would be expected, were therefore not considered. Among these fishes was Platypoecilius perugiae.

As we examine the two papers, it becomes immediately clear that the two groups used different criteria when writing up their papers, for instance Everman & Clark included a detailed drawing of the type speciman. Nichols & Myers did not include such a drawing. Not only that, rather than go through all the work of giving a detailed description, they relied heavily on comparison by stating that melanonotata was a "Limia related to nigrofasciata but differing in" ..., which was then followed by a list of differences between the two species. There are additional problems as well. Neither paper included male specimans as types or paratypes and Evermann & Clark had available a single female speciman which was collected the previous year by another collector and therefore they only saw a preserved speciman.

There are four primary features of these two fishes highlighted in the papers: the dorsal spot, the lateral stripe, fin ray counts and the shape of the caudal fin. There are other features mentioned in one paper or the other, but not in both so we cannot use them for comparison.

Starting with the dorsal, Evermann & Clark first describe "a very narrow but faint black dorsal streak" and then later state that all the fins are pale "except for the dorsal which is somewhat dusky with a small black blotch at the posterior edge of its base". The drawing that accompanies the paper does not show this blotch, so it is difficult to say how small it was on their speciman. Nichols & Myers in describing the dorsal, state that "a very distinct small black spot is present at the base of the seventh and eighth dorsal rays". They also describe the remaining fins as hyline, which I assume means without markings. These descriptions are very similar so provide no apparant distinction. I have raised many of these fish, and by far the most distinguishing feature of the female is the dorsal spot. It can be observed on newborn fry, juveniles and adults, so it is a bit surprising that Evermann & Clark did not include the spot on their drawing.

The lateral stripe is not uniform in shape and is not easily described as is evident by the two descriptions.

Evermann & Clark:

"upper parts of side with minute punctulations which tend to collect along the edges of the scales, giving the appearance light spots alternating with dark crescents along the rows of scales; the spots tend to collect more densely, and in the center of the row of scales along the axis of body, making a narrow black line along the center of the side and another short line beneath it for the anterior third of the length"

"A series of black spots, one on a scale, down the fourth scale row, beginning a little anterior to the end of the appressed pectoral and dwindling in size to the base of the caudal. On the fifth scale row, a similar series of larger black spots begins at the insertion of the pectoral, the spots decrease abruptly over the front of the anal and thence dwindle in size barely reaching the caudal. There is a suggestion of a third series of spots on the next scale row and on the posterior half of the side a faint trace of vertical bars is seen."

We start to see differences in the descriptions when we get to the fin ray count, Evermann & Clark state that both the dorsal and anal fins have 8 rays, whereas Nichols & Myers state the dorsal has 9 rays and the anal, 10. Unfortunately, their have been multiple conventions in use for counting fin rays, which may account for the differences seen.

The biggest difference we see, however, is in the shape of the caudal fin. Evermann & Clark describe the caudal as "broad and round". Their drawing supports this description. Nichols & Myers do not describe the caudal, implying that its size and shape is similar to that of Limia nigrofasciata which has a wedge shaped caudal. Given that every fish I have come across has had a wedge shaped caudal, I have to conclude that the fishes in the hobby, or at least mine, are Limia melanonotata and not Limia perugiae.

It should also be useful here to quell a misconception I have read many times and is often used as a reason to decide whether a hobbyist's fish is L. perugiae or L. melanonotata. The error seems to come from the common name for L. melanonotata, Black-banded Limia. Hobbyists make the assumption that melanonotata means black-banded, and therefore if their males have a large distinctive black band on their caudal, then the fish must be L. melanonotata, and if it doesn't, then it must be L. perugiae. I believe this is incorrect because melano-notata means "dark marking" and must refer to the lateral stripe on the female because Nichols & Clark went to some effort to stress that they had no male specimans available to them. The morphic differences in hobbyist's male caudal fin's and other markings are instead probably due to inbreeding of aquarium strains over many generations, as most fish available to the hobby are not from recent wild stocks.

At the ALA convention auction in San Antonio, Texas, May 2008, I purchased six junvenile Chapalichthys pardalis (Mintzita population) for a whopping eleven bucks. That's less than two bucks per. I couldn't get a guppy for that. I brought them home to Austin, and placed them in a 20 gallon tank with six or so Limia vittata. As expected the fish were active and non-aggressive - they were just kids afterall. After about 2 months the fish had grown to about 1.5" TL and were doing well, so I netted five of them - the sixth was smarter than the rest, and dumped them into my outdoor pond with a large school of Limia melanonotata, a pair of nezzie swords, various endlers and a couple koi - for color. I observed them in the pond over the next couple of months and noticed them grow slowly. The remaining indoor chap was up to about 2" TL. A couple of weeks ago I went on vacation for ten days, and when I came back I found that the five chaps in the pond were all huge - 3" to 3.5" TL. At least a couple of them were gravid females as well. Quick netting at feeding time managed to snag a pair which I brought back indoors and put into a 50 gallon with some nezzies and Limias. Two days later I had a half-dozen 1" fry in the tank and another dozen of so in the pond. The fry are so large, that it would take a couple months for Limia or nezzie fry to reach that size. The parents are active and non-aggressive as well which I am very glad to see. The last goodeids I kept, Ameca splendens, were beasts and I was not sorry to see them go (die). So if you looking for an attractive, fast growing (in the right conditions), goodeid that can be kept with other community livebearers, I recommend this chap.
Update: It has been one month since I wrote the previous note. The bad news is that the baby chaps in the 50 gallon all disappeared after about two weeks - this can only mean that the adult chaps ate them as I have no other fish in the tank that could accomplish this. The chaps in the pond continue to grow and now are absolutley huge at about 4". Hopefully, the dozen or so baby chaps in the pond have survived, though I have not been able to identify any. There are plenty of small Limia and nezzie fry in the pond that do not seem to be bothered the chaps.
Update: I find that chap fry in the indoor tanks never survive their parents care and attention - cannibals. However, chap fry in the pond fair a bit better. At the end of the season I had another 5 chaps large enough to survive in the indoor tanks. If you want to save your chap fry indoors, you'll need to move the gravid mother to another tank, and then remove her after she drops.

The temperature began to warm up some, and the pond water was holding at 70 deg F for several daya. I added two six month old female Limia melanonotata and a male Jordenella floridae (American Flagfish) to test water. We then promptly had a cold spell that lasted about 3 weeks where the water tempertature dropped to 58-59 deg F. What I found really surprising was that the fish survived just fine. None of them would eat until the water got back up into the sixties. I added another 18 female and 3 male Limia, a pair of Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl (Nezzie Swordtails) and a small koi when the water hit 65 deg F. They all are doing great, even when the water occassionally dips back down into the low sixties. I think that maybe the heaters on the indoor tanks are not really needed.

After 3 months and many batches of Limia melanonotata fry, none of the juveniles, some of which are getting pretty large, have sexed out as males. I moved six of the juveniles to another tank and after just a few weeks, one of them converted to a boy and began courting almost immediately. I have had no other juveniles make the move, so to speak.

I attended the October Hill Country Cichlid Club meeting at the Anderson Lane branch of the Austin Public Library. Mark and Mike gave a lecture on their last fish collecting exhibition to Venezuela. Mark has a home and wife there, so it was not exactly primitive camping. They were not able to bring fish out of the country, so only brought back preserved specimens. The talk lasted 2 hours, most of which covered travel and local life. Only about the last 20 minutes covered the local fishes and habitats. They had a few pictures. After the lecture there was a small question and answer period which proved most informative. Mark explained what two of the largest issues with trying to keep soft water fish in medium or hard water were. First of all, since soft water is very acidic, there is virtually no bacteria in the water, so the fish have evolved to have a weak immune system. When these fishes are then put in aquaria where bacteria exists, this can lead to problems with their health. Second, since the soft water habitats usually have no conductivity or hardness, there are very few minerals in the water. These fishes kidneys have evolved to extract their salts from the water to function. When placed in aquaria with lots of minerals, their kidneys can be overloaded and go into renal failure causing death.

The nighttime temperatures are dropping down to about 65 deg F and the daytime temps are only getting up to about 85 deg F. The pond is staying at a steady 68-69 degF. I decided it was time to fetch the mollies from the pond and put them in the heated garage tank. I was able to fetch two of them (Blackie and Vaughn - Don't laugh at me, I didn't name them - Laura did, blame her). Anyway, the first thing that struck me after netting them form the cold water and then acclimating them for about 45 minutes to the 82 deg F tank is that Vaughn is now a boy - they were both girls when they went into the pond. From the photo it can be seen that she clearly now has a gonopodium. I doubt if it is functional since she was already full grown whe she had the sex change operation. I know some female livebearers can change genders when no males are present, but I thought that this was not the case with mollies. Later I was able to capture the last molly (Pokie). When I placed her in the garage tank it became very obvious that she was pregnant. I know it is possible for some livebearers to store milt (sperm) internally for as long as a year, allowing them to self fertilze at a later date to have fry, but I've had her for 3 months, and my son had her for several months before that - no males present. Do you suppose that Vaughn's newfound gonopodium is functional after all? The following day Pokie had nine fry, but unfortuneatly she ate them all by the next morning, and just as unfortunately, Vaughn presumed father died as well. Apparently his acclimation was a complete failure.

So I went to Dallas to visit my son and to bring him two of the new juvenile Ansictrus sp. (Bristlenose catfish). I had just sat down for a nice lunch with my son and his girlfriend when I received a somewhat desperate call from my wife. "There's a dead tropical fish on the driveway. What should I do?" O.K., so I know its an open ended question, and the temptation to fill in the blank is almost irresistible, but I was just a little more concerned about how one of my fish ended up dead and on my driveway. Incidentally the fish had been run over by a car (unintentionally, I assure you) so she was not able to identify what kind of fish it was. After several minutes of questions and answers and discussions around the table, we had narrowed it down to three equally unlikely possibilities - all of which were wrong by the way. My wife was certain to explain that to me repeatedly. The first possibility was that it was a molly. I have a small above ground pond in the backyard about 20 feet away from the spot on the driveway where the fish was found. The pond contains three female mollies and no other fish. The pond is going through an algae bloom, so the water is murky (key the mystery music now). I surmised that a cat or possibly a raccoon, caught one of the mollies, and dropped it on the driveway for some reason - perhaps it was scared off by an oncoming car. Now I must explain here that I came to this conclusion even after my wife assured me that she saw all three mollies still in the pond. Looking back, that may have been a mistake. Needless to say it was not a molly. Apparently I'm an idiot. Next. A second possibility, suggested by my son, was that it was one of the fish from the 20 gallon aquarium I keep in the garage. The tank is on a workbench, also about 20 feet away from the spot on the driveway where the fish was found, but uphill. I had earlier that day caught the two juvenile bristlenose catfish out of that tank to bring to my son - hence the lunch (Mexican food - not catfish). That left only three fish remaining in the tank - one other juvenile bristlenose, and two female Butterfly Goodeids. My wife assured us that the two Goodeids were still in the tank - he, being smarter than I, did not question her. He surmised that the fish on the driveway was the remaining bristlenose which my wife could not verify was still in the tank. He thought that possibly when I pulled out some of the decorations to gain access to the other bristlenose, that the third one must have been latched on and perhaps fell off outside the tank. Maybe it rolled downhill. May be it crawled into my pocket and jumped out outside. Wrong. My wife explained to us later that she is not so slow that she can't tell the difference between a tiny two-inch bristlenose and a regularly shaped fish. Apparently he's a dope. Laura, the girlfriend, surmised that the body on the driveway that was run over by a car and squished and was not recognizable was in fact a small lizard, perhaps without a tail - it wasn't. Again my wife explained that she is not so blind that she cannot tell the difference between a lizard and a fish. Apparently Laura is - must not have been thinking clearly.

So there you have it - The Great Mystery Dead Fish Debacle. Three solutions - three mistakes. We hang our heads in shame. We had apparently missed the obvious. Did the fish fall from the sky - no. Did the fish walk over from someone else's yard - no. Was it somebodies leftovers - no. I will take credit for eventually finding the solution (some hours later) - this without even seeing the fish. A couple of weeks earlier, my male Butterfly Goodeid died of a heart attack (the surgeons said he couldn't be saved) while removing him from the pond. What do you do with a dead fish. Sometimes I toss them into the bushes. This time however, I tossed him into a trash can I keep in the garage. Every 2 or 3 weeks when the can is full and we take our trash to the street for pickup (on Wednesday in this case), I empty the garage can into the large outside trash can - where? On the driveway. Evidently when I did this, the fish fell out, un-noticed by me, and laid there for several days. He was probably run over several times. Mystery solved. The lessoned learned here is - never doubt your wife; especially when she assures you that she knows of what she speaks. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that she told me in the initial conversation that the fish looked allot like a Butterfly Goodeid (kill the music).

Mike from the HCCC sold me 9 juvenile Ansictrus sp. (Bristlenose catfish). I put 3 into each of my tanks. Each one is about the size of an Otocinclus. Their father was an albino between 4 and 5 inches with huge bristles. The mother was colored normally and was about 3 inches. The juveniles are spotted with a white edge on their caudal fin. They are very cute. I eventually brought a pair to my son in Dallas, which after several months were large enough to breed. He has had several batches of fry, some of which may have been albinos, however those did not survive.

I purchased some Limia vittata (Cuban Limia) from Amazonia Aquariums in Austin, TX.

A couple of interesting observations of the Limia vittata: They are far less active than the Limia melanonotata and spend 95% of their time picking at the green and black hair algae in the tank. In just one day, they have taking care of most of the algae available. The L. melanonotata never eat algae as far as I have seen. Also, the dominant male spends most of his time with the smallest female and completely ignores the larger female. The subordinate male spends half his time running from the dominant male and the other half trying to get close to the smallest female. Again he completely ignores the largest female.

I attended the Federation of Texas Aquarium Societies (FOTAS) convention in San Antonio on the 7th and 8th. I drove down from Austin on Friday after work, got home at midnight, drove back down at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and got back at 6:30 p.m. I had no energy to attend the auction on Sunday, and had no intention of buying any fish. FOTAS was hosted by the Hill Country Cichlid Club (HCCC) of which I am a sometime member. The focus was on cichlids, and they had 4 speakers, all of which did a wonderful job. All the speakers had powerpoint presentations which included several underwater videos. Dave Hansen spoke on Aquarium Photography from which I learned a few new Photoshop post processing techniques. Juan Miguel Artigas Azas (author of the The Cichlidroom Companion - http://cichlidae.com) gave two interesting lectures on Central American cichlids. Anton Lamboj gave a a primer on West African cichlids, and Spencer Jack (http://cichlaholic.com) gave two enjoyable lectures on his collecting trips to Suriname and Uruguay. The convention also included a fish showroom, 17 show awards in 9 classes, a banquet, a silent auction, and a fish auction. I did not participate in these - alas, I am not keeping cichlids. They also had t-shirts for sale and gave out a goody bag to registered guests which included enough goods to cover the cost of the convention. They also had other fee things like the last 9 issues of the Buntbarche Bulletin. All in all, I enjoyed the convention very much and I think the HCCC did a great job hosting it.

So having digested a wild hair, I decided to put in a pond. Actually, it's more like an outdoor tank. I intend to use it to raise some of my livebearers. I put together a new page for the pond, you can see the details there. It holds 440 gallons. Immediately after filling it, we had a major storm. Timing is everything. I put some colorful mollies, donated by my son, in the pond to test it out.

I purchased some Xiphophorus nezahualcoyotl (Nezzie Swordtails) from Aquatek in Austin, TX.

I have been informed by Bobby Ellermann that the Nezzie swords I recently bought most likely came from his stock. He raised them between 2000 to 2006, and when he moved, he gave his non-spotted breeding stock to Charles at Goliad Farms, which is one of the major suppliers to fish stores in my area. He originally got his nezzies from Greg Sage in the ALA who in turn got them from a hobbyist in San Francisco who had bred them for years. Bobby recommended feeding them 2 to 3 times a day, with a diet rich in meat, such as frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, beef heart/veggie mix and salmon/shrimp mix, Live daphnia, fruit flies, grindal worms, and baby brine shrimp, Hikari micropellets, earthworm flakes, brine shrimp flakes and garlic flakes. Feeding often with a meaty diet will ensure good health.

The male Limia melanonotata is an aggressive courter. I've read [1] that a non-dominant male in small schools of perugiae will not be permitted by the dominant male to mate with any of the females (this does not hold true for larger schools). I have a small group of melanonotata, a similar fish, 2 males and 2 females, with one of the males being quite a bit smaller than the other.

I purchased some Ameca splendens (Butterfly Goodied) and some Limia melanonotata (Black-banded Limia) - labelled as Limia perugiae, from Amazonia Aquariums and from Aquatek, both in Austin, TX. These are all farm raised fishes from Goliad Farms Fisheries in Goliad, Texas.

L. melanonotata are similar to L. perugiae and are found in the wild only on the island of the Dominican Republic. A collection report by Alf Stalsberg [1] for the island mentions several locations where L. perugiae were found.