Arthur Rachow

Arthur Rachow (born June 13, 1884 in Hamburg ; † February 2, 1960 ibid) was a German amateur ichthyologist and aquarist . He is one of the pioneers in aquaristics in Germany. His main interest was the tetras .

Life

Rachow grew up under poor conditions. At the age of 13 he had to help support his family. After finishing school, Rachow learned the printing trade and then worked in the machine room of the "Hamburger Fremdblatt". Due to his determination, he was finally able to qualify as a businessman in his dream job. Even before the First World War, Rachow published numerous articles in the aquarium trade press, in which he mainly presented innovations. In 1921, Rachow wrote his only first scientific description of the brightly colored ornamental female ( Aphyosemion australe ), which was first introduced to Europe alive in 1913. His work Handbuch der Zierfischkunde , published in 1928, is one of the standard works of German-language aquarium literature. An abridged English edition of this book was published as early as 1927 under the title Tropical Aquariafish Catalog . From 1935 to 1956 he worked alongside Hermann Meinken and Maximilian Holly on the loose-leaf collection Die Aquarienfische in Wort und Bild (1934–1967), for which he wrote 229 texts. From 1935 to 1937, Rachow was the head of the fish identification office of the Association of German Aquarium and Terrarium Associations. V. (VDA).

Trivia

One of Rachow's teachers in the elementary school was Christian Brüning (1860–1943), one of the co-founders of the Association of German Aquarium and Terrarium Associations. V. in 1911.

Dedication names

Rachows killifish ( Nothobranchius rachovii ), by Arthur Rakhov in 1926 Ernst Ahl named

The species Nothobranchius rachovii , Characidium rachovii , Heterophallus rachovii , Iguanodectes rachovii and the genera Rachovia (type species Rachovia brevis ) and Rachoviscus (type species Rachoviscus crassiceps ) are named after Rachow .

literature

• Gerhard Ott: Festschrift 90 years of the VDA: On the history of the VDA's fish identification office (with details about Rachow's work with the VDA's fish identification office), 2001, pp. 1-44
• Axel Zarske, Heinz Otto Berkenkamp: The standard work "Holly, Meinken, Rachow (1934–1967) the aquarium fish in words and pictures" and its meaning for ichthyology. - Bulletin of Fish Biology, 15 (1/2), 2015: 53-119. (Biographical data about Rachow)