Foreword to "The Best of the Rainbowfish Study Group of North America" 1992
It was in the summer of '87 when I was at a fish show lamenting the fact that there wasn't a group dedicated to rainbowfish in North America. Well Jim Bellina told me to quit my grousing and start one! Some sort of wager was made and soon in September of that year the first few pages of our newsletter was sent out to a few hobbyists interested in "bows". The question was: Would you like to join a rainbowfish club and would you be willing to send in articles? We now enjoy a small but comfortable club of about 200 members. The second part of the answer lies beyond this page in the works presented by our members and some selected works by other rainbowfish clubs from around the world.
The quality and look of our newsletter has dramatically improved over the years in no small part due to Scott Buckel, our current editor's effort. He is also responsible for electronically reshuffling and organizing almost 5 years worth of our articles to produce this booklet. Both of us tried to find most of the little errors that had crept into our articles but we left a few for those of you who enjoy that sort of thing. It was quite amazing to sit down and read through five years worth of articles. Thanks again to all of you that contributed to this effort. Without your help there wouldn't be a Rainbowfish Study Group today.
Since there really isn't a good reference book devoted to the raising and breeding of bows and gudgeons we thought a collection of our articles might help others interested in this area. We hope that our members will recommend it to their local clubs as a useful addition to their libraries.
I must also make a comment about the cover collages. As most of you realize the photos were not all taken at the same ratio, therefore the Pseudomugil furcatus appears to be almost as big as the Melanotaenia. This really seemed to be the only practical way to reproduce our photographs as I was certainly not going to individually paste in the shots as was done for the original newsletters. Actually some photos appear here that have never been shown in our publication before. Someday the cost of colour production will drop and then we'll really produce a cover that will knock your socks off. Maybe for the next ('97) five year issue?
Gary Lange
Names of Species –
Image 1 (Top To Bottom)
Pseudomugil gertrudae (Magela Creek Drainage)
Rhadinocentrus ornatus
Melanotaenia japenensis (Yapen Island rainbow - photo by Dave Price)
Glossolepis wanamensis (Lake Wanam rainbow)
Pseudomugil furcatus
Melanotaenia eachamens
Melanotaenia lacustris (Lake Kutubu or turquoise rainbow)
Chilatherina bleheri (Bleher's rainbow)
Melanotaenia affinis (Pagwi variety)
Melanotaenia exquisita (Edith Creek)
Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi (Lake Tebera rainbow - 2 males)
Melanotaenia splendida australis (Drysdale River)
Image 2 (Top To Bottom)
Melanotaenia monticola (Mountain Rainbow)
Melanotaenia species - probably splendida (Burdeldn River)
Chilatherina fasciata (Barred rainbow - yellow form)
Melanotaenia duboulayi (Burnett River)
Melanotaenia gracilis
Pseudomugil mellis
Melanotaenia affinis ("Violet Ramu" - from Bluewater Creek)
Melanotaenia boesemani (Boeseman's rainbow)
Chlamydogobius eremius (desert goby)
Common names for rainbowfish from New Guinea adapted from Freshwater Fishes of New Guinea, G.R. Allen 1991
All photos by Gary Lange except where noted
Editor's Note . . .
About three years ago, I volunteered to edit the Rainbow Times. During that time I learned a great number of things. Being an editor gives you almost instant recognition which can be rather interesting. People start writing you asking questions, giving suggestions, and sometimes complain about my editorial comments and errors. I have learned more about rainbows by reading your articles and discussing them with various other enthusiasts. All in all I glad I volunteered for this task. Also, being actively involved in this group has lead me to meet some of the most interesting and generous people that I have ever met.
In the past six to seven months I have been reading and rereading the articles from the past five years. I have included in this collection articles that cover a full five years from September/October 1987 to July/August 1992. Having just read the (hopefully) final draft of this collection, I am looking forward to the next five years! I hope you are, for if it wasn't for you, the members, this collection would have never been put together. I thank you all for your contributions.
Scott Buckel
Table of Contents
Rainbowfish Basics
RAINBOWFISHES - Egg Posting and Fry Raising, Ron Bowman 1
Picking and Sending Rainbowfish Eggs, Gary Lange 3
Hatching Rainbowfish Eggs, Gary Lange 5
Breeding the "Bows”, Spencer Glass 6
Spawning and Raising Rainbows, Dan Helwig 7
Sexing Your Juvenile Bows, Gary Lange 8
Is it Soup Yet? , Ken Glackin 9
Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks or
Growing Rainbowfish Fast Using Vinegar Eels , Gary Lange 10
My Experience with Ulcer Disease, Glenn Leiper 11
Rainbowfish Disease, Derrick Onishi 11
Illness and Disorder of Wealthy in Rainbowfish, Uwe Bochmann 12
In Search Of Rainbow Species, William Benson 14
ANGFA Conference 1991, Derrick Onishi 15
Down Under, Sandy Dillard 15
About Dr Gerald R. Allen 16
Rainbowfish Colour Changes, Dale Speirs 17
Some Thoughts about Breeding Rainbowfish, Dale Speirs 17
Shedding Some Light on Showing Your Bows, Ken Glackin 18
Rainbowfish Distribution, Dale Speirs 19
Getting Plants to Grow Like Your Bows, Danny Spreitler 21
Planted Rainbow Tanks, Mark Denaro 22
"Rubbermaid" Rainbows, Charley Grimes 23
New Names - Old Species Popondetta Replaced with
Popondichthys , H. Hieronimus 25
Three new rainbowfishes from the Vogelkop peninsula (Irian
Jaya, New Guinea), Eddy Derijst 26
Rainbowfish Clubs around the World, Gary Lange 29
A Key to the Species of Pseudomugilidae,
Based On External Features, Igor Sheremetjev 29
Melanotaeniidae and Pseudomugilidae Two Separate Families of
the Former Rainbowfishes , Eddy Derijst 31
Obstacles to Rainbow Mania, Gordon Orlikow 32
Spawning and Rearing Rainbows "No More Mops", Chris Drew 33
How to Write a Fish Article, Scott Buckel 34
Freshwater Fishes of New Guinea, Dr. Gerald R. Allen — A Review,
Gary Lange 35
Collecting Rainbowfish
Return to Lake Kutubu, Dr Gerald R. Allen 37
Lake Eacham Rainbowfish Rediscovered? , Gerald R. Allen 39
Collecting Giant Blue Eyes from Cooper Creek, T. R. Voevodin 41
Black Rainbows, Red Tailed Blue Eyes and a 16 Foot Croc,
David Liddle 43
Impressions from Madagaskar , Dr. Rirgen Clasen 45
Collecting in Australia's Northern Territory, Bruce Hansen 46
Fraser Island, Donna Hosmer 48
Afterthoughts, Kevin Hosmer 49
Collecting in Irian Jaya, Dr. Gerald Allen 49
Rainbowfish Paradise, Dave Price 54
Species of Rainbowfish
Little Rainbows, Gary Lange 56
Cairnichthys rhombosomoides , Dave Stephon 58
Spawning Iratherina werneri or The Trouble with Threadfins,
Ken Glackin 59
Pseudomugil popondichtys connieae, William D. Benson 60
Adventures with Pseudomugil popondicthys connieae,
Dave Stephon 61
Pseudomugil tenellus - The Delicate Blue-eye, Gary Lange 62
Keeping and Caring for Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis, Bruce Hansen 63
Pretty Little Blue Eyes —Pseudomugil gertrudae, Joe Yarosz 64
Catching and Raising Pseudomugil mellis, T.R. Voevodin 65
The Townsville Blue Eye Pseudomugil signifer, Derrick Onishi 65
Spawning Rhadinocentrus ornatus or Three's a Crowd,
Ken Glackin 67
Chilatherina sentaniensis-The Neon Rainbow, Jaap-Jan de Greef 68
New Guinea Reds A Remarkable Rainbow, Joe Yarosz 69
I Wanna Wanamensis.. ..Keeping and Breeding Glossolepis wanamensis,
Dave Stephan 71
Melanotaenia affinis (Violet), Incredible Blues,
Jorge Luis Sanchez 72
Melanotaenia boesemani - The Perfect Fish? , Charley Grimes 73
Size and Sexual Separation: The Key for Successful Raising
of Melanotaenia boesemani, Adrian R. Tappin 75
Melanotaenia duboulayi from the Burnett River, Gary Lange 76
Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi Lake Tebera Rainbowfish,
Gary Lange 77
Melanotaenia waikiki? , Adrian Burge 78
Melanotaenia lacustris The Coolest Blue, Gary Lange 78
Melanotaenia lacustris —The Turquoise Rainbow, Joe Yarosz 80
The Redfin Rainbow.... Melanotaenia maccullochi,
David M.Stephon 82
The Mountain Rainbow (Melanotaenia monticola), Tony Brehm 83
Highland-Dwelling Rainbows, Derrick Onishi 83
Slightly Acid Beauty Some Notes On Raising and Showing the
Goyder River Banded Rainbowfish, Craig Newhouse 85
The Purple Gudgeon - Mogurnda mogurnda - A Tale of Two Fishes,
Gary Lange 86
Raising and Caring for Desert Gobies, Mike Yamamoto 87
The Desert Goby, Ron Rornigh 88
Peacock Gudgeons - Tateurndina ocellicauda, Bruce Hansen 88
RSG BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chairman/Printer: Gary Lange
Renewals: Sherry Bresett-Taylor
Mailing List: Jim Bellina
Editor: Scott Buckel
Audio Visual & Back Issues: Jeffrey Bilbrough
Show Sanctioning: Ed Schildnect
Eachmensis Project and Species Maintenance: David Stephan
Reprinting is available for not-for-profit organizations only. When reprinting articles, please mail two copies to the Editor. Please include the address of the Editor in any reprints. This will insure that further reprinting will also be forwarded to us. Thank