Thursday, October 28, 2010

Los machos Hemichromis lifalili y una foto de los alevines

Los pececillos del desove actual están comenzando a tratar de nadar. La hembra aun no los ha sacado de la cavidad en que nacieron pero creo que lo hará una vez que comiencen a nadar. El macho está más agresivo que en los días anteriores y ahora los otros peces han tenido que refugiarse en el lado de la pecera opuesto al lugar donde ocurrió el desove. El padre de los pececillos ha desarrollado un impresionante color probablemente inducido por los efectos hormonales de la reproducción. En lugar de ser de un color rojo brillante como todos los lifalili que he visto por aquí, este macho ha desarrollado una multitud de puntitos azules que eclipsan su color rojo. El color rojo del macho es más oscuro que el de la hembra. La hembra sigue perdiendo peso ya que apenas sale de la cavidad donde están los pececillos. Es una excelente mama, por lo que veo todos o casi todos los que nacieron están aun vivos, ya se le ven claramente los ojos y la boca.

El color azul de las escamas del macho es difícil de capturar en una foto ya que el “flash” lo despinta hasta hacerlo ver casi blanco. Por eso incluyo unas fotos del macho bajo distintas iluminaciones. El macho subdominante es el pez menos colorido de la pecera y pasa casi todo el tiempo escondido o huyendo del macho dominante. Sin embargo no tiene las aletas rotas ni otras señales de abuso severo. Las hojas de teca y la vegetación flotante de la pecera le proveen al macho y a las hembras no reproductoras de refugios esconderse de los individuos reproductores.

fotografia con flash

macho fotografiado con luz del sol

macho y hembra

macho subdominate

La hembra cuida sus crias con un celo admirable

Alevines que ya han consumido una cantidad considerable del saco vitelino

Dendrobium primulinum, also known now as Den. polyanthum


I have had Dendrobium primulinum for about five years and I have found it is among the most beautiful and easy to grow of all Dendrobium. Unfortunately easy to grow doesn't necessarily means it is also easy to bloom. All the plants I have brought have grown well with what I consider standard care for members of the Dendrobium section of the genus Dendrobium. However getting these plants to bloom has been at times a source of frustration and disappointment. It appears that I am growing this species at the very upper limit range of their temperature tolerance for blooming. That means that relatively small variations on the night temperatures at certain critical parts of the year can have profound influence on the quality and quantity of the blooming.


Growers that grow primulinum in the lowland coastal plains of Puerto Rico report that the plants bloom with few flowers or even a single one. Other plants may fail to bloom at all. Irma Selles,a well known local orchidist or renowned skill growing plants showed in an Internet forum a large healthy plant with only a single flower. Dr. Julio David Rios, an accomplished grower of many types of orchids says that his primulinum plant has never bloomed. Don Alfonso a Mayaguez grower that had a large collection of orchids in the seventies and eighties that had a plant of primulinum var. giganteum for many years would complain that his plants bloomed very rarely and often would produce just a single flower. All the plants in the previously cited cases are growing under a climatic regime where night temperatures rarely fall much under 75F at night even at the depth of the tropical winter (which actually is not that cold and could be more properly regarded as the dry season). Where I live, in the mountainous interior of the island, at a height of about a 1,000 feet, temperatures fall to the top sixties at night in winter and may go down to the high fifties for a few nights during the coldest part of the year.
This 10 degree difference between the night temperatures in the coast and the interior makes all the difference in blooming primulinum. But it has to be said that even thought my plants bloom better than the plants in the coast, they could probably bloom even better if the temperatures dropped down consistently into the fifties. I know this because I have seen photos of primulinum growing outdoors in Hong Kong, China and there they produce many more flowers in a single cane than plants in Puerto Rico. In the year 2009 my plant bloomed poorly, with the exception of a single cane that produced two flowers all the other canes failed to bloom. Some of my primulinum, a plant labeled var. Leon, seems to be less sensitive to excessive warmth, however even this plant has, on occasion, failed to bloom.  So if you have cool winters where temperature dips into the fifties and forties, and you also have sunny, warm and wet summers, this plant will probably do well for you.

I have my plants in a place where they get full sun during the morning. Due to the orientation of the shadehouse where they are growing they get more sun as autumn goes into winter, this is similar to what happens in their native habitat where they are exposed to brighter light conditions when the trees where they live lose their leaves.
My plants are watered daily from May to November and then the watering frequency tampers down until they may not get water for two or three weeks at the height of the dry season. I watch the canes and if they get too wrinkled I water the plant lightly.
During their growth phase, in my garden it is from May to November, I fertilize every week. I also put a few pieces of dry cow or horse manure on top of the media, this seems to help produce larger canes. Because the plants are grown outdoors and get a good deal of rain I don’t worry about fertilizer salts build up on the baskets where they are grown.

I grow them on plastic and wire baskets that allow for excellent exposure to air of the roots. The roots die if deprived of oxygen and this can spell doom for a plant. My plants are grown hanging from the bottom of the baskets, this allows for a more natural presentation of the flowers and in my view for easier watering and fertilizing. I don’t grow my plants in plaques of any kind as local conditions means that they dry up very fast necessitating too frequent watering.
They seem to grow well in all the media I have tried bark, cork and coconut. I would guess that these plants will grow well in most orchid planting media as long as watering and fertilizing is done taking in account the properties of the media.
I have three types of primulinum, one has bluish petals and sepals and a white lip, another has al white lip with two yellow eyes and baby pink sepals and petals. The flower of the third type I have has so much yellow in the lip that it resembles a Dendrobium farmeri flower, the petals and sepals of this flower are light pink. I have heard about some plants that have been offered for sale as primulinum alba, but the ones I have seen appear to be white individuals of a similar species Dendrobium cretaceum.
Although primulinum has very beautiful flowers, if care is not taken to groom the plant the flowers can suffer from a poor presentation. This mainly consists of flowers in each side of a cane pointing in opposite directions and flowers from different canes getting all bunched up. I have seen photos of plants exhibited in orchid shows in Asia, in particular in Japan and Taiwan which were groomed with skill that the intrinsic beauty of the flowers was greatly enhanced by the delight artistry of the presentation.

When my plants bloom next year I will try to emulate the high standards set by exhibitors in Asia to make my plants a living work of Art. Wish me luck!

Notice the excellent presentation with all the flowers pointing to the same side


An unusually dark blooming of var. Leon




Note the huge round lip characteristic of this species

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Las Hemichromis lifalili hembra pelean por la cavidad del desove


Cuando hace unos días noté que la hembra lifalili tenía marcas de mordiscos sobre la boca, pensé que había sido peleando con el macho. Pero hoy me di cuenta que esta observación es no es correcta. Hoy pude observar como otra de las hembras lifalili retaba a la hembra que cuida los huevos y como ambas forcejeaban mientras se mordían en la boca. La hembra que cuida los huevos ganó el forcejeo ya que obviamente es la que tiene la mayor motivación pero la otra presento una resistencia fuerte. Como dicen en mi pueblo estas hembras pelearon “a lo macho”.  El macho nado alrededor de las hembras en un estado de gran excitación pero no intervino hasta que una de ellas huyo. Cuando la hembra perdedora huyo, el macho la persiguió aunque solo por un corto trecho.
La hembra que cuida los huevos ha perdido una cantidad de peso significativa desde el día del desove. Apenas come y se mantiene en un estado de alerta constante que la hace perseguir a todos los peces que se acercan al lugar donde están los alevines. Se nota ya claramente flaca comparada con los otros peces. He tratado de ofrecerle comida pero la hembra, apenas nota la cercanía de otro pez, deja de comer y se va a perseguirlo.

Los alevines están en buena condición y por su incesante movimiento, han consumido una buena parte de los nutrientes del saco vitelino. Ya se les puede ver claramente los ojos y algo de pigmentación en el cuerpo.

En la foto en que la hembra y el macho están juntos intimidando otra hembra pueden notar que el macho tiene muchas líneas de escamas de un color azul claro.  Tengo la impresión de que las otras hembras están tratando de seducir al macho.  Por lo menos una de ellas parece que quisiera expulsar a la hembra de la cavidad donde están los alevines para ella poder usarla para desovar.  Esta hembra se ve gorda y tiene excelente coloración, me pregunto si podrá convencer al macho de que abandone a su pareja y desove con ella.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Cattleya Earl 'Imperialis' FCC/AOS


Cattleya Earl 'Imperialis' FCC/AOS an old hybrid that still ranks among the best

I brought this orchid in the nineties, around 1995. It came from Hausemann’s Orchids in Illinois. I brought it because I remembered the delicious fragrance of white Cattleya I had experienced when I was young and I wanted a plant that embodied the pinnacle of white Cattleya breeding. This plant grew well in a shade house in the coastal region of Puerto Rico and eventually produced shapely and fragrant white flowers. In the year 2000 I took it to the Rio Abajo forest, where I work, this proved to be a mistake. The plant had been potted in a media mix that was perfect for the drier, hotter, climatic conditions of the coastal plains but the potting mix was unsuitable for the much wetter, colder weather that is prevalent at certain times of the year in the mountainous interior of the island. The potting mix started decomposing at an accelerated rate and the resulting debris blocked the flow of oxygen to the roots. The result was that the plant lost its roots. To make things even worse, a black rot started invading the pseudobulbs. When I noticed the plant was in trouble, in 2001, it was almost too late to save it. I took the plant out of the pot and carefully, and with a sterilized clipper of course, started clipping away dead and infected parts. At the end I finished with just a single healthy pseudobulb with a single living eye.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

The female red jewel fish Hemichromis lifalili and her fry




The eggs of the female Hemichromis lifalili about which I wrote in an earlier post hatched during the weekend. The fry are now at the bottom of the cavity where spawning occurred. The fry are full of vibrant activity as they all move their tiny tails incessantly. At this stage of their development they are called fry because they hardly resemble a proper fish. In the image you can see the mass fry but only the yolk sacs can be seen clearly. The yolk sacks are attached to the belly of the fry. The fry are little more than a line of muscle tissue a few millimeters long. Because the fry are vigorously shaking their tiny bodies and are transparent they cannot be seen well in the picture which shows the massed fry. But we can distinguish some black dots above the yolk sacs. These dots give rise to the eyes and nervous system of fishes.
The female defends her fry with impressive ferocity, in the images we can see that it has a bite on the area over the mouth. I do not know which of the fish in the tank bit her but I suspect it was the male with whom she spawned . To my surprise the female was aggressive when the male approached the spawning cave and stopped him from to entering it. She blocked him from entering where the the fry were by arching her body and lifting the scales covering the gills. The male spent most of his time on the other side of the tank with the other fish, his level of aggressiveness was mild compared with that of the female.
The previous spawning that occurred in the tank was the product of the male of this spawning but with a different female. Apparently the male lost interest in that spawning the moment the fry were born and left the female alone to defending their offspring. The female of the previous spawning took the fry from the trunk and hid it in a depression in the material at the bottom of the tank, but she could not defend the fry from the other fish and lost them all.
In a few days the female of this photo also have to move their young to the bottom of the tank to allow them to forage for food. It remains to be seen whether the male will help her defend them. From what I could see the males showed a somewhat ambiguous behavior, he seemed to behave aggressively but at the same time he was obviously eyeing the other females, the latter development does not augur well for the survival of the fry.

La hembra Pez Joya rojo Hemichromis lifalili y sus alevines




Los huevos de la hembra Hemichromis lifalili sobre la cual escribi en el “post” anterior eclosionaron en el fin de semana. Los alevines que nacieron se encuentran en el fondo de la cavidad donde ocurrió el desove. Los alevines forman una masa llena de vibrante actividad ya que todos ellos mueven sus diminutas colas incesantemente. En esta etapa de su desarrollo se les llama alevines porque aun no son peces propiamente formados. En la foto de la masa de alevines lo único que se ve con buena definición son los sacos vitelinos que están pegados al vientre de los mismos. El alevín en si es poco más que una línea de tejido muscular de unos pocos milímetros de largo. Debido a que los alevines mueven sus diminutos cuerpos vigorosamente y que son transparentes no se les puede distinguir en la foto en que aparece la masa de alevines sola. Pero se pueden distinguir algunos puntitos negros encima de los sacos vitelinos. Estos puntitos darán origen a los ojos y al sistema nervioso de los pececitos.
La hembra defiende a sus alevines con ferocidad, en la foto podemos ver que tiene una mordida en la parte superior del área de la boca. No sé cuál de los peces en la pecera la mordió pero sospecho que fue el macho con el cual ella desovó. Para mi sorpresa la hembra se mostró agresiva con el macho cuando este se acerco al tronco del desove y evito que entrara donde estaban los alevines bloqueándolo de entrar, arqueando su cuerpo y levantado las escamas que cubren las agallas. El macho por su parte se mantuvo la mayor parte del tiempo al otro lado de la pecera con los demás peces, su nivel de agresividad era reducido comparado con el de la hembra.
El desove anterior que ocurrió en la pecera fue producto del mismo macho de este desove pero con una hembra distinta. Al parecer el macho perdió el interés por ese desove en cuanto los alevines nacieron y dejo a la hembra sola defendiendo las crías. La hembra del desove anterior sacó a los alevines del tronco y los escondió en una depresión en el material del fondo de la pecera, pero no pudo defenderlos sola de los otros peces y los perdió.
En unos pocos días la hembra de esta foto también moverá sus alevines para el fondo de la pecera. Está por verse si el macho la ayudara a defenderlos. Por lo que pude ver el macho demostraba un comportamiento un tanto ambiguo, con agresividad pero parecía al mismo tiempo estar echándole un ojo a las otras hembras, esto último no augura bien para la supervivencia de los alevines.

A red Jewel fish (Hemichromis lifalili) female tending her eggs


In this image we can see a female lifalili tending her recently spawned eggs. The female is using her pectoral fins to create currents of water over the eggs so that they receive the oxygen they need to live. The female also mouths the eggs. I have read that the female removes from the spawn those eggs that become infected by fungus. This spawn is in an immaculate condition so it seems that the female is successfully managing to control the attack of the fungus on her eggs . This is the second spawning of my lifalili. These fish have been surprisingly precocious, they began to spawn when just a little bit over about two inches in lenght, about four weeks after they are acquired. It is said that adults can reach six inches long but the most of those I've seen locally are no more than four. When these fish are in the process of spawning they become especially aggressive toward other fish. To achieve this image I had to plan carefully how to provide them with a suitable spawning site that would also allow for ease of photographing. The lifalili seem to prefer spawning in enclosed areas. For this reason it is common for aquarists to provide them with terracotta pots usually placed on their side. The problem is that this type of arrangement, in a tank like mine, makes it difficult to photograph the fish caring for the eggs and fry. I put in the tank two pieces of ceramic that resemble a mass of roots and which have at their top tubular cavities that open toward the surface.. To reduce the potential of a spawning in a hidden or inaccessible elsewhere in the tank I do not use any other object that has a cavity suitable for spawning. Since the opening of the cavity is facing the surface it is relatively easy to photograph the female taking care of the eggs.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Hembra pez joya del Congo (Hemichromis lifalili) cuidando un desove

















En esta foto podemos ver a una hembra lifalili atendiendo un desove. En la imagen se ve a la hembra usando sus aletas pectorales para crear corrientes de agua sobre los huevos para que estos reciban el oxigeno que necesitan para vivir. La hembra también toca a los huevos con su boca. Se dice que la hembra elimina de la nidada a los huevos que se infectan por hongo. La verdad es que la puesta se ve inmaculada así que la hembra en esta imagen está logrando exitosamente controlar el ataque del hongo en sus huevos. Este es el segundo desove de mis lifalili. Estos peces han resultado precoces, comenzaron a desovar cuando median apenas unas dos pulgadas y media, cerca de cuatro semanas después de haberlos adquirido. Se dice que adultos pueden alcanzar las seis pulgadas de largo pero la mayoría de los que he visto localmente no pasan de las cuatro. Cuando están en el proceso de desove se muestran especialmente agresivos con los otros peces. Para lograr esta foto tuve que planificar cuidadosamente como iba a proveer a los peces de lugares apropiados para el desove para evitar que desovaran en un lugar oculto o inaccesible que no me permitiera tomar buenas fotos. Los lifalili prefieren desovar en espacios cerrados por lo cual es común que los acuaristas les provean de tiestos de terracota, usualmente puestos de lado sobre el substrato. El problema es que este tipo de arreglo, en una pecera como la mía, hace difícil el fotografiar la puesta y el comportamiento de cuido de los huevos. Por eso coloque en la pecera unas raíces de cerámica que tienen en su tope una cavidad tubular. Para eliminar la probabilidad de un desove en otro lugar, no use en la pecera ningún otro objeto que tuviera cavidad alguna que los peces pudieran usar para desovar. Como la apertura de la cavidad da hacia la superficie, resulta relativamente fácil fotografiar la puesta y a la hembra cuidándola.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Peristeria elata, the Holy Ghost Orchid


Peristeria elata is one of my favorite orchids because of its beauty and the tiny mimicry of a dove that is created by shape the column and the lip of the flower. I tried to grow Peristeria elata a number of times in the past and every time my plants would grow to a tremendous size, but then they would fail to bloom even after years of devoted care. I would eventually lose the plants mostly to neglect once it was clear they would not bloom ever. This was very frustrating for me since the culture of this plant is not that difficult. I Eventually found out why I never got flowers from my plants, the key was provided paradoxically by a plant that would not bloom for its previous owner.
I was at an orchid show a few years ago and in a vendor's stall I spied the largest Peristeria plant I had ever seen. The pseudobulbs were enormous, each significantly larger than my clenched fist. I asked the vendor for the plant and heard a familiar story, in spite of excellent care, the plant would not bloom. I asked for the price in a distant, not very interested way and the vendor told me that since he was tired of devoting bench space to a non blooming plant, I could have it for $20.00. In a second I had brought the plant.
But this time around I did things differently with the culture of the plant. When the dry season started I stopped watering it. Even though the pseudobuls became wrinkled I resisted the temptation to water. Also no fertilizer was given to the plant. In addition to these measures, now I was living at a higher elevation than when I had my previous plants and every night in the dry season the plant would experience a 10F to 15F degrees temperature drop.
Nothing happened with this plant and for months on end it showed no sign of blooming or growing.
Then in the summer of 2007, I saw two green tips coming out of the base of one of the bulbs. One was clearly a new growth but the other appeared to be an inflorescence. As the weeks went by I was delighted with the fact that the plant appeared to be on its way to produce a very large inflorescence. The inflorescence topped out at four feet and a half and produced the largest Peristeria flowers I had ever seen. Impressively large and opening more widely than any Peristeria flowers I had seen previously, the flowers were a delight to the eye. They were also powerfully fragrant. They were so fragrant that the fragrance started getting a but cloying. The plant bloomed several years in a row and then I had to repot and divide it because it had filled its pot. I expect the divisions to start blooming next year.
So what is what I learned about this plant? I learned that for this plants I need to emulate their natural seasonal cycle to trigger blooming. In my case giving the plant year round watering and fertilizer will produce amazing plants but no flowers.
This orchid is the national flower of Panama and it is sadly endangered in the wild from overcolletion. But it is easily available in the market. If you have the time,the space and the appropiate growing conditions this is a good plant to grow and on the plus side it is also a handsome foliage plant that when well grown resembles a seedling coconut palm.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

My Coelogyne Burfordiense and Coe. mayeriana and their differences (I originally thought my Burfordiense was pandurata)

Coelogyne Burfordiense 
Coelogyne mayeriana pseudobulb
Coelogyne burfordiense pseudobulb
Lip of mayeriana
Lip of Burfordiense
I have three types of tropical Coelogyne, in this post I compare my plants of Bufordiense and mayeriana.  Originally this article listed Burfordiense as pandurata because this was what was in the label when I brought my plant.  Since then I have talked with many orchid growers and I have come to the concludion that my plant is the hybrid Bufordiense (pandurata x asperata)  Key to this understanding was a group in Facebook named Coelogynes e afins in which flowers of pandurata were shown, they clearly lacked the yellow warts that come from asperata.  I thank them for sharing their knowledge.

Coelogyne Burfordiense is a huge plant with pseudobulbs and leaves that are far larger than the other related species or hybrids. As you can see in the photo a well cultivated plant can produce five to six inches tall pseudobulbs, since they are also wider than the pseudobulbs of the other species a Burfordiense pseudobulb at five inches is far more massive than a mayeriana that tops out at two.

The denomination pandurata makes reference to the fiddle shape (pandurate) of the lip of the flower. Coe. Burfordiense has inherited this lip shape.  The mayeriana I have produces smaller flowers that don't have a fiddle shaped lip. Nevertheless I have seen mayeriana with lips that approach the shape of pandurata, which muddles the issue a bit.

In both orchids the color of the lip is black. Hybrids with other species can look pretty similar to pandurata but the brownish color of the flowers on some of them, and the presence of the warts from asperata is trait that can be used to identify hybrids.

The lip ornamentation on my Burfordiense is quite elaborate with black spines, yellow warts, and keels along the long axis of the flower. The flowers of my mayeriana are similar but the warts are white.

The inflorescences of Burfordiense can produce up to 17 flowers at a single time and are large and robust. The mayeriana inflorescence is much shorter than that of Burfordiense, the stem of the inflorescence is thinner, my mayeriana plant only produces four to six flowers per inflorescence.

The Coelogne species mayeriana, pandurata and parishii and their hybrids are relatively simple to cultivate if you live in the tropics and have the space to accomodate their rambling growth. Coelogyne Burfordiense is particularly bothersome in respect to potting as a plant can outgrow a pot in just a few months because of its long internodes between pseudobulbs and the large size of the plant.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Zoogoneticus tequila, English version


They come from central Mexico, the females are assertive, powerful and the males desire and fear them. The males are handsome, aggressive but cannot avoid being controlled by the females which henpeck them mercilessly. I'm not referring in these lines to the plot Mexico's latest soap, but the behavior of the viviparous Mexican fish Zoogoneticus tequila.

The Zoogoneticus tequila is known in English as the "Crescent Goodeid" due to the coloration of the tail fin of the male or the "Tequila splitfin" in recognition of the anatomy of the anal fin of fish in the Goodeidae family. I don't know if it has been awarded a common name in Spanish as it is not available locally in the commercial aquarium trade but in this article it will be called the Tequila. The Tequila nickname refers to a volcano in the vicinity of its natural habitat. Fish of the Goodeidae family are distinguished by a number of fascinating biological and anatomical adaptations that separate them from other livebearers, these make them an interesting subject for the aquarist. Their behavior is also of interest because unlike other viviparous fished Zoogoneticus interacts with other fish in the same way that Mike Tyson interacted with Evander Hollyfield's ear in that unforgetable fight.
We will start by detailing the reproductive adaptations of this species. The male fish of the family Goodeidae lack a gonopodium, this immediately distinguishes Zoogoneticus from other viviparous fish common in the market such as guppies, swordtails and mollies. Because they have no specialized structure such as the gonopodium, males use the first few anal fin spines to transfer sperm to the female. The females do not store sperm so they have to be fertilized every time they produce a litter, in this respect they are unlike the Poeciliae such as guppies and mollies. The young develop inside the female and produce a structure called trophotaenia which comes out of their bellies and allow them to absorb nutrients from the mother's body. The females produce relatively few offspring compared with other livebearers, 10 to 15, but the young are much larger than usual in viviparous fish. The attitude of adults towards the young is similar the way Herod treated his own children. Adults actively hunt the young, they should be separated from them so they can survive. It is reported that the female gives birth roughly every two months.

Some species of the genus Zoogoneticus seem to have very restricted geographic distributions. Tequila has not been collected in the wild since 1990 and it is suspected it might have become extinct in the wild. Tequila was recognized as a new species in 1998 even though specimens had been collected since 1955. The species Tequila is related very closely with Zoogoneticus quitzeoensis described in 1898 and Zoo. purhepechus a new species described in 2008. Its origin lie in the state of Jalisco, in the river Teuchitlan.

Males are grayish, some scales of the sides of the body show a pink iridicensce. The females are generally gray but the ones I have show a fairly dark color probably because the level of illumination in their aquarium is low. My fish are still young so it is likely they will continue to change color as they mature.

I keep the fish in a tank 30 gallon long. The water in the tank has a pH of 7. The tank has no conventional ornaments. The bottom is covered with teak leaf litter, a soft mud that has resulted from the decomposition of the leaves and algae that has covered the remains of the leaves. Laying just below the water surface is a mass of plants, mainly Hygrophyla difformis. The temperature of the tank varies between 70F and 80F. I change about 80% of the tank water every two weeks.

The fish are fed three times a day, in the morning when I go to work, noon and in the evening just before sunset. If anything can be said of these fish is they eat everything I offer with a breathtaking lack of discriminating criteria. The cheapest flake food is eaten with the same zeal as the mosquito larvae,"bloodworms" and food pellets. I try to vary the diet a bit every day and while some days I give them bits of minced shrimp in others I give pellets. Different sources recommended that these fish should be fed with a vegetable-based food. But as the tank has a good growth of algae, I have not bothered to give any special vegetable based food.

In the beginning there were five Tequila in the tank, three females and two males. But the two largest females harassed the younger in a manner so barbarous I suspect it was killed or that it may have jumped from the tank as it disappeared a few days after they arrived at my home. This is illustrative of the character of this species. They are aggressive fish, truculent and lacking in subtlety. In short they have an horror of a personality. In this they are the veritable antithesis of the ideal fish we want in a community tank.

Tequila breeders recommended keeping this species in a species only aquarium. During a normal day the largest male harrases several times the smaller one. Males approach females with caution since unreceptive females can bite. Not a day has passed without seeing that a Tequila has lost a scale here or there or has a bite in one fin.

What role can play in our aquarium a fish with so abhorrent a personality?. It turns out that the inclination for discord and contention of this fish makes it perfect for aquariums with small cichlids of like personality. But its role is not simply to share the aquarium, the Tequila with their challenging personality can provide a distraction for the cichlids. By diverting the attention of the cichlids they can ameliorate in a small degree intraspecific aggression and when the reproduction of the cichlids occurs, the Tequila become a catalyst for the protective instincts of the cichlids toward their young.

My Tequila share a tank with five jewelfish juveniles, Hemichromis lifalili, a jewelfish from Congo or Zaire. The lifalili are famous for two reasons, one is that when breeding they develop one of the most spectacularly colorful nuptial dress of any freshwater fish. The other is their unfortunate tendency to murder, in a violent and bloody way, all the other fish when they have young to protect.

Even when they are young and small the lifalili are far from being like Mother Teresa and they spend a lot of time chasing and attacking each other. Sometimes they harass the Tequila in an absent minded sort of tokenish way, they reserve their worst venom for their own kind. So far as I can tell, I have not noticed that any lifalili has caused any apreciable harm to the Tequila, to the contrary, subdominant lifalili often spend much time hiding in the vegetation along with the long suffering Tequila males.

You should realize that in spite of what I recommend above, you can't drop the Tequila in a tank with cichlids and expect everything to be peaches and cream. Nothing can be further from the truth! There is no faster way to kill a Tequila that throwing it in a aquariun where some territorial cichlids are tending their fry. The Tequila should be housed with the cichlids when the cichlids are still young and in a aquarium large enough for them to escape the aggression of cichlids. But that is another theme and in the future I will dedicate an article to commenting it.

The Tequila are very alert of my presence near the tank and watch me intently when I sit down to look at them. They are less shy than the cichlids and are not intimidated when I approach with a camera. Every day I spend some time observing them and the fish have learned that when I arrive in the afternoon there will be a special treat. So when I sit next to the aquarium just before night fall they react with great excitement. They are so bold that I've seen the whisk away a piece of shrimp from a cichlid with such speed that the cichlid is left wondering what happened.

The Tequila eventually will be moved to their own tank as the adults lifalili reach a size of about six inches and even before reaching this size they become a mortal danger to the other fish when they have a school of young to protect.

As you have seen the fish Tequila are not for everyone. But they have a certain charm, in an horribly obnoxious way, that transcends the absence of bright colors and peaceful behavior

Zoogoneticus tequila



Vienen de México central, ellas son altivas, poderosas y los machos las desean y les temen. Los machos son guapos, agresivos pero no pueden evitar ser controlados por las hembras las que los mangonean despiadadamente. No me estoy refiriendo en estas líneas a la trama de la última novela mexicana en llegar a nuestros televisores sino al comportamiento de los peces vivíparos mexicanos Zoogoneticus tequila.
El Zoogoneticus tequila se le conoce en ingles como el “Crescent goodeid” en reconocimiento a la coloración de la aleta caudal del macho o como el “Tequila splitfin” por la anatomía de la aleta anal en los peces de la familia Goodeidae . No conozco que se le haya adjudicado un nombre común a la especie en español ya que es muy poco común en el ambiente del acuarismo pero en este articulo los llamare los Tequila. El apelativo tequila se refiere a un volcán en las cercanías de su hábitat natural. Los peces de la familia Goodeidae se distinguen por una serie de fascinantes adaptaciones biológicas y anatómicas que los distinguen de los demás vivíparos y que los hacen un interesante sujeto para el cultivo en pecera. Su comportamiento también es de interés ya que distinto a los otros vivíparos el Zoogoneticus interacciona con los otros peces con la misma forma que Mike Tyson con la oreja de Evander Hollyfield en aquella archifamosa pelea.
Pero comencemos con las adaptaciones reproductivas de esta especie. Los machos de los peces de la familia Goodeidae carecen de un gonopodio lo que los distingue inmediatamente de los vivíparos más comunes en el mercado como son los gupis, los espadas y los mollies. Como no tienen una estructura especializada como lo es el gonopodio los machos utilizan las primeras espinas de la aleta anal para transferir las espermas a la hembra. Las hembras no almacenan esperma así que tienen que ser fecundadas cada vez que paren, distinto a los poecilidos como son los gupis y los mollies. Las crias se desarrollan en el vientre de la madre y producen una estructura llamada trofotaenia que sale de su vientre y les permite absorber nutrientes del cuerpo de la madre. Las hembras producen relativamente pocas crías comparadas con otros vivíparos, de 10 a 20, pero las crías son mucho más grandes que lo usual en vivíparos. La actitud de los adultos hacia las crías es similar a la de Herodes hacia sus propios hijos. Los adultos cazan activamente a las crías por lo cual estas deben ser separadas de los mismos para que puedan sobrevivir.
Algunas de las especies del genero Zoogoneticus tienen distribuciones geográficas muy restringidas y locales. Al Tequila no se le ha coleccionado en su ambiente natural desde el 1990 y se teme que se haya extinguido en el estado salvaje. El Tequila fue reconocido como una especie nueva en el 1998 aun cuando ya se habían colectado ejemplares desde el 1955. La especie Tequila está relacionada muy de cercanamente con Zoogoneticus quitzeoensis descrita en el 1898 y Zoo. purhepechus especie nueva descrita para la ciencia en el 2008. El origen de Tequila es en el estado de Jalisco, en el rio Teuchitlan.
Los machos son de un color grisáceo, en algunas escamas de los lados del cuerpo muestran una iridicencia rosada. La hembras son generalmente de color gris pero las que tengo en mi pecera tienen una coloración bastante oscura probablemente a causa de que el nivel de iluminación de pecera es bajo.. Los peces que tengo son aun jóvenes así que es probable que la coloración siga cambiando según maduran.
Tengo los peces en una pecera de 30 galones larga. El agua de la pecera es de lluvia y tiene un pH de 7. La pecera carece de adornos convencionales. El fondo está cubierto de restos de hojas de teca, de un cieno blando resultado de la descomposición de las hojas y de algas que han recubierto los restos de las hojas. Flotando justo bajo la superficie del agua hay una masa de plantas, principalmente Hygrophyla difformis. La temperatura de la pecera varia entre 70F en la madrugada y 80F en las horas mas calurosas del dia. Le doy un cambio de agua a la pecera de 80% cada dos semanas.
Alimento a los peces tres veces al dia, en la mañana cuando salgo a trabajar, al mediodía y en la tarde justo antes del atardecer. Si algo se puede decir de estos peces es que comen todo lo que les ofrezco con una falta de criterio impresionante. La comida en hojuelas más barata es devorada con el mismo afán que las larvas de mosquito, los “bloodworms” y la comida en “pellets”. Trato de variarles la dieta un poco todos los días y mientras que algunos días les doy pedacitos de camaron machacado en otros les doy comida en “pellets”. Distintas fuentes de información en la Internet recomiendan que se les alimente con alimentos de base vegetal. Sin embargo como en la pecera hay un buen crecimiento de algas, no me he tomado la molestia de comprar ninguna comida especial basada en algas.
En el principio tenía cinco Tequila en la pecera, tres hembras y dos machos. Pero las dos hembras mas grandes hostigaron de una forma tan bárbara a la más joven que sospecho que la mataron o salto de la pecera ya que desapareció pocos días después de llegar a mi casa. Esto que les cuento es ilustrativo del carácter de esta especie. Son peces agresivos, truculentos y faltos en sutileza, en fin tienen un verdadero horror de personalidad que los hace el verdadero antítesis del ideal del pez que queremos en un “community tank”.
Por esto los que crían esta especie recomiendan que se les mantenga en un acuario en el cual solo estén los Tequila. Durante un día normal en macho Tequila más grande ataca varias veces al pequeño. Los machos se acercan a las hembras con precaución ya que las hembras no receptivas pueden morderlos. No ha pasado un día sin que vea que alguno de los Tequila haya perdido una escama aquí o allá o tenga un mordisco en alguna aleta.
¿Que rol puede jugar en nuestras peceras un pez con tan aborrecible personalidad?. Pues resulta que la inclinación por la discordia de este pececillo lo hace perfecto para compartir peceras con cíclidos pequeños de igual personalidad. Pero su función no es simplemente compartir la pecera, con su presencia los Tequila distraen a los cíclidos, en cierto grado, de su agresión intraespecífica y, cuando ocurre la reproducción de los cíclidos, los Tequila se convierten en un catalizador de los instintos de protección de las crías.
Mis Tequila comparten su pecera con cinco juveniles del pez joya del congo Hemichromis lifalili. Los lifalili son famosos por dos características notables, una es que cuando se reproducen desarrollan uno de los coloridos nupciales más espectaculares entre los peces de agua dulce. La otra es una desafortunada tendencia a asesinar, de una forma violenta y sanguinaria, a todos los otros peces que comparten con ellos la pecera en el momento en que tienen crías que proteger.
Aun cuando son jóvenes y pequeños los lifalili distan mucho de ser la Madre Teresa y se pasan persiguiéndose y atacándose todo el tiempo. En ocasiones hostigan con pocas ganas a los Tequila pero reservan su mayor veneno para los de su especie. Hasta ahora no he notado que los lifalili hayan causado daño alguno a los Tequila, al contrario los lifalili subdominates pasan mucho tiempo escondidos en la vegetación junto con los sufridos machos Tequila.
Debo advertir que lo que recomiendo anteriormente no significa que usted puede tirar a los Tequila en una pecera con cíclidos y esperar que todo sea perfecto. ¡Nada más lejos de la verdad! No hay forma más rápida de matar un Tequila que echarlo en una pecera de cíclidos territoriales con crías. Los Tequila se deben presentar a los cíclidos cuando los mismos son aun son jóvenes y en una pecera lo suficientemente grande como para que puedan escapar de la agresión de los cíclidos. Pero ese es otro tema y en un futuro le dedicare algún comentario.
Los Tequila siempre están alerta a mi presencia cerca de la pecera y me observan con atención cuando me siento a mirarlos. Son menos tímidos que los cíclidos y no se intimidan cuando acerco la cámara a la pecera para tomarles alguna foto. Todos los días dedico algún tiempo para observarlos y los peces ya han aprendido que cuando llego en la tarde habrá una comida especial por lo cual reaccionan con gran excitación. Son tan audaces que los he visto quitarle un pedazo de camarón a un cíclido con tal velocidad que el cíclido se ha quedado como quien se pregunta ¿Que paso?
Los Tequila eventualmente serán movidos a su propia pecera ya que los lifalili adultos alcanzan un tamaño de cerca de seis pulgadas y aun antes de llegar a ese tamaño se convierten en un peligro mortal para los otros peces cuando tienen un cardumen de crías que proteger.
Como han visto los Tequila no son peces para todo el mundo. Sin embargo son peces que tienen un encanto propio que trasciende la ausencia de colores brillantes y de comportamiento pacifico.