Boeseman's rainbowfish
Harlequin Rainbow Fish ( Melanotaenia boesemani )
The Harlequin Rainbow Fish ( Melanotaenia boesemani ), also superb rainbow fish, Boeseman's Rainbow fish or coral Rainbow fish is a freshwater ornamental fish from the Vogelkop Peninsula in New Guinea.
Features
The color pattern of adult male Harlequin Rainbow fish is very different from the other rainbow fish: the head and front part of the body are bluish while the fins and the rear half of the body are colored bright orange. At the junction of the two color zones are alternately bright and dark vertical stripes. Females often have a greenish tinge and a broad dark stripe along the middle of the body, which is flanked by thin orange vertical stripes between each shed row, especially in the posterior half of the body. Adult females are similar in coloration often half-grown, subordinate males, but are more slender and have rounded fin tips. The males have a higher physique and reach a body length of about twelve inches, the females stay smaller.
Occurrence
The Harlequin Rainbow Fish comes in a karst plain in the center of Vogelkop Peninsula in West Papua in clear waters. He lives locally bounded in the Ajamaru Lakes and surrounding tributaries and in Aytinjo Lake, which drain into the river quays.
The Ajamaru Lakes consist of three larger flat individual lakes with muddy banks, which are connected by many natural channels. The water depth and Seegröße siginifikant varies with the seasons. The ground is muddy and partially overgrown with lush underwater vegetation.
The Aytinjo Lake, located about 20 km southeast of Ajamaru lakes is more of a wide river with rocky banks, which ends suddenly but is probably connected underground with the Kais River. The ground is partly rocky and partly sandy with abundant aquatic vegetation.
Gerald R. Allen and Norbert J. Cross described 1980 copies in 1954/55 collected by a Dutch expedition. 1982 collected together with Heiko Bleher Allen first live fish came by Bleher to Europe. IUCN, the species was last evaluated in 1996 and classified as " critically endangered ".
Aquarium maintenance
The Harlequin Rainbow fish can be kept in water with values of 5-25 ° dH (GH ) and a pH of 6.5-8.1 at temperatures of 24-26 ° C. The breed is quite easy, being spawned in a clump Java moss. What is striking is the extremely slow growth of fish that are grown in some cases only 1.5 years. With a good attitude, they can reach an age of about 8 years and a length of about 15 cm.
The socialization with other peaceful fish of the same size is possible in a sufficiently large aquarium without further notice.