Five baby angelfish, they are descendants from a wild strain from Peru

 A bunch of babies!

Today I got these five juveniles angelfish, Pterophyllum.  They are the descendants of a wild strain.  All the angelfish in today's pet market are descendants of fish that have been mass bred in captivity for many decades.  The need to produce huge numbers of fish to supply the demand, made the fish breeders to remove the eggs from the parents as a mater of standard practice.  This eventually resulted in angelfishes that lacked parental skills and would eat their spawn and fry.   My hope is that these fish will eventually breed and I will be able to document their parental behavior.  Domesticated angelfish are intelligent, somewhat aggressive (they are cichlids, even if they don't look the part) and can become very tame and responsive toward their owners.  Oh, you read these fish are peaceful?  Well, only in relation to their cichlid brethren from South America, which can be extremely aggressive toward other fishes.  Angelfish can be downright nasty to each other when they are breeding.  They are also skilled predators that will eat any fish that will fit into their mouths.  

Epidendrum fimbriatum Kunth 1816, a tiny gem from high altitude wet forests

I saw this plant in the orchid house of the Botanical Garden of Quito, Ecuador.    This plant except that it is found in Peru.¹  It is also found in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia.   The flowers were at the tip of a long inflorescence that seemed to have been blooming for a long time.  It was being cultivated on a raised bed of gravel.

¹Zelenko, H., Bermudez, P. 2009.  Orchid species of Peru

Encyclia brassavolae (Reichenbach f.) Lindley ex Stein 1892

I saw this plant in the orchid house of the Botanical Garden of Quito, Ecuador.   Although this orchid was not identified with a tag, the flowers are unmistakable.   It was growing on a raised bed in the middle of the green house.  It had a single flower.    The plant was in excellent condition.   It is clear it thrives in a diurnal range of 45F during the night and 77F during the day.

This plant is found in Central America and Mexico at altitudes between 1200 and 2500 meters in wet pine oak evergreen forest, it is reported to sometimes grow on rocks.¹  This plant was placed by Withner in the genus Panarica.  In the Cattleyas and their relatives: The debatable Epidendrums, it is named Panarica brassavolae (Reichenbach f.) Withner & Harding. 

 

¹Withner, C. L., Harding, P. A. 2004. Cattleyas and their relatives:  The debatable Epidendrums

Lycaste gigantea also known as Ida grandis and Sudamerlycaste grandis

This orchid is a fairly large plant with meter long inflorescenses.  The flowers are variable in color, these were apple green.  It is found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.  It is a cool grower that lives high in the Andes.  I saw this plant in the Jardin Botanico de Quito, in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.  The inflorescenses were growing among the leaves with the result that the flowers were hidden from sight.  I detected the flowers because I could see the inflorescences arising from the pseudobulbs.  The plants were exhibited as terrestrials so flowers were near the ground.  This orchid formed a large clump but had just a few inflorescences.  This orchid has been known by a number of scientific names, Lycaste gigantea var. labelloviridis, Ida grandis, Ida labelloviridis and Sudamerlycaste grandis.