Saturday's Meeting (04/09/2004)

[Green Baron]

My butterfly survey trip to Malaysia is cancelled in the last minute :-( so I can make it to this Saturday's meeting :-) I will bring along 3 pots of my Aponogaton sp to give away. I will be there around 8pm.

1) timebomb / KL
2) shortman / Kho
3) stormhawk / Jianyang
4) A.Rashid / Rashid
5) RonWill / Ronnie
6) fc / Freddy
7) lily / Lily
Gan CW/Gan CW

[imported_lily]

Hey guys,

I will try my best to be at the meeting but can only meet up after 10.30pm if not, before 7pm.. Anyway, I will try to be present. Will bring the female "lafia" along if I am able to make it.

[FC]

Sorry guy,

I will not be coming. I am going to Tioman Island for company's "communication session" trip, from Friday to Sunday.

For the foreigners who may not know, Tioman Island is a resort island located at eastern part of West Malaysia. It is known for its' clear water, corals, beaches and annex islands. About 15 years ago, it was the top ten resort island in the world ago, I am not sure about its' ranking now.

Rashid, thank you for the offer.

[stormhawk]

Freddy, shucks then. Well enjoy your trip to Tioman!. By the way, don't forget to show us some pictures eh? :wink:

Ronnie, Lily, for easier purposes I've come up with a way for picking out the Lafia females from the mixed tank.

1) Lafia females should have a greenish body sheen.
2) Spotted dorsal and anal fins.
3) Patchy distribution of reddish spots on the body.
4) Lafia females have a clear caudal fin with no extensions.
5) The head region should have some red lines here and there.

Lily, it would be better to know what strain of AUS you have in that tank. Different diagnostic features for each strain. Knowing what you have would easily narrow down any mix-ups. :wink:

[imported_lily]

Thanks JianYang for the info of picking the "Lafia" female. wouldn't it be best if you can make a trip to my house and do the selection for me?

Ronnie. about the meeting-up tomorrow, dont think so I can make it, something crop up the last minute and I got to attend another "party" but this time the location is in Malaysia

[timebomb]

Ronnie,

Here are the pictures of the fish Lily brought to Eco-Culture last Saturday. If they aren't lafia, what are they?





Loh K L

[RonWill]

Lily & Kwek Leong,
The 2 females are in a separate tank from the 'Lafia' male and the more I look at it, the more unsure I am.


Referring to the original group of Lafia females, I'll state what I feel are the differences (others feel free to chip in their thoughts);
1. The body form resembles an australe.
2. Blue-green hue and spots are absent, despite having settled in and eating well.
3. The specimen at the top (of the edited pic) has whitish tips, like an australe. Most GAR females have rounded caudal outline, like the lower specimen.
4. The anal fin looks like early development of a color band.
5. Some GAR exhibit a 'fuller and darker lower lip' as though lip-stick was applied (no folks, I'm not gonna kiss it ).
6. I'm quite sure that GAR has a slightly up-turned mouth (see lower 'lip' of Right pic);


For more distinguishing characteristics, look at Tim Addis's gardneri page.

Lily, I think I'll have to make a fishing trip to your place to pick up some girls. Get a stool ready because I'll be looking long and hard. Will bring along a sharp-eyed beagle to play "Spot the difference". Let me know when's a good time over the weekend.

[zmzfam]

Referring to KL's photos, I think the fish with the straighter caudal fin is a male 'Lafia'. I doubt so that it is an australe. At this stage-3 months old-, the australe male would have colour up.

Also, I won't compare Lily's fish development with those from Ronnie's. I suspect the feeding is different so Ronnie's fishes would develop and colour up faster.

[RonWill]

Referring to KL's photos, I think the fish with the straighter caudal fin is a male 'Lafia'. I doubt so that it is an australe. At this stage-3 months old-, the australe male would have colour up.

Also, I won't compare Lily's fish development with those from Ronnie's. I suspect the feeding is different so Ronnie's fishes would develop and colour up faster.

Zul,
When Lily collected the 5 Lafia's, all of them were approx the same size. Photos in the album shows only a few of them and by then most have colored up. Females were distinguishable by their blue/green sheen and random red spots.

Pics of the male, taken July 9th and Sep 10th '04;


I took a few shots of Lily's female and still can't decide...


[September's pic taken with 'Tank-In-Tank' method, inspired by Tony Terceira in the Photo Tank thread]

[stormhawk]

Ron, the white tips occur in australe females as well. I have spawning videos of your chocolate pair doing the whoopie at KL's place the other time and these are clearly seen and proven in the videos. I also took a video of KL's GAR flirting and the female can be clearly seen to have a flat-edged tail with a thicker body form and a greyish base body colour. Judging from your previous pictures of the GAR Lafia trio, the females were clearly seen to have greenish base body colour and a scattering of reddish spots on the sides of the body.

After observing my last remaining chocolate female, there is a short, dark stripe running down the dorsum from the start of the dorsal fin and right towards the head. Australes also lack that "lipstick" mark clearly seen in the GAR N'sukka females. Tail shape of both specimens in the pictures are clearly more towards lyrate with a slight curve in the centre. These are hallmarks of australes with some females showing hints of a lyrate tail-form. AUS females should also have an elongated, rather than a stocky body form. My female is rather fat and keeps laying plenty of eggs but she still has the elongated body form with a thinner caudal peduncle in comparison to the GAR N'sukka females that I saw at your house many times.

Therefore I am of the opinion that BOTH are indeed australe not gardneri females. :wink: