Melanotaenia fluviatilis
| Melanotaenia fluviatilis | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Melanotaenia fluviatilis from the Murray River |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Melanotaenia fluviatilis | ||||||||||||
| ( Castelnau , 1878) |
Melanotaenia fluviatilis (Latin: "fluviatilis" = belonging to the river, living in the river), in German red-speckled rainbow fish , Australian mother-of-pearl fish or, simply called red- eared fish because of a red spot on the gill cover , is a freshwater fish species from the rainbow fish family(Melanotaeniidae) . It occurs in southeastern Australia in the river system of Darling and Murray Rivers , as well as in rivers of the coastal region of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland east of the Great Dividing Range . Melanotaenia fluviatilis is the furthest south occurring rainbow fish species.
features
Melanotaenia fluviatilis has a moderately elongated body, is severely flattened on the sides, and is usually ten to eleven cm long. In terms of color, the species is relatively variable. The back is bluish or bluish green. An indistinct longitudinal band in the middle of the matt, silvery sides of the body is often not visible. The rear half of the body is patterned with small, red rows of dots at the bottom, as is the caudal fin. Dorsal, anal and ventral fins are lined with black and have a red to brownish dot or dashed pattern. In female fish, the fin pattern is less pronounced. The gill cover shows a strong red spot. The iris is gold in color.
- Fin formula : dorsal 1 V – VII, dorsal 2 I / 8–13, anal I / 17–20.
habitat
Melanotaenia fluviatilis lives in slowly flowing rivers and streams and in stagnant bodies of water such as lakes, ponds, and less often in swamps. The water quality in its habitat is generally good, the water is clear and flooded with sunlight. The temperature is between 18 and 28 ° C, in winter it can drop to 10 to 15 ° C in the southern regions of the distribution area. If it falls below 10 ° C, fish deaths can be drastic . The species lives in large schools.
Systematics
Melanotaenia fluviatilis was described as Aristeus fluviatilis by the French explorer Francis de La Porte de Castelnau in 1878 , but was later assigned to the genus Melanotaenia . In 1982 , Allen & Cross synonymous the species with Melanotaenia splendida , but it remained a valid subspecies. Since 1986 it has been run as an independent species again. Melanotaenia fluviatilis is closely related to the carmine rainbow fish ( Melanotaenia duboulayi ) from the coastal region of southeast Queensland and Fraser Island , from whose range it is separated by a watershed .
literature
- Peter Schubert: Rainbow fish. Urania-Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3-332-00469-7 .
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
- Peter Schubert: Melanotaenia fluviatilis. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 635.
Web links
- Melanotaenia fluviatilis on Fishbase.org (English)