NEWS106
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Rasboroidesvaterifloris
, redvariant
The species-typical black finedging is readilyvisibleunder this lighting.
Rasboroidesvaterifloris
,bluevariant
Rasboroidesvaterifloris
,yellowvariant
Lexicon
RedRasbora
Rasboroidesmeans“similar toRas-
bora”;Rasbora isanother cypriniform
genus.
vateriflorismeans“colored like the
flowersof theVateria tree”.
nigromarginatameans“withablack
margin”.
FairyRasbora is restrictedonly to thesestre-
ams in Athwelthota,” said Madura, high-
lighting theneed toprotect these freshwa-
ter sourcesconserving theirhabitats.
He fears the fish could thus be a victimof
over collectionasAthwelthota streamsare
frequently raidedbyornamental fishcollec-
torswhocatch fish for export.
National SurveyonFreshwater fish
TherediscoveryofMeinken’sFairyRasbora is
thefruitoftheNationalSurveyonFreshwater
FishesconductedbyWCSGtogetherwiththe
BiodiversitySecretariatof theMinistryofEn-
vironment.
The research teamhad already discovered
several species of freshwater fishes that are
new to scienceaspartof this survey started
lastyear.
SystematicFreshwaterFishstudy inSriLanka
beganas farbackas1830byPieterBleeker.
During this periodof 170 years,ninemajor
research studieswerecarriedoutdisclosing
therichdiversityofSriLanka’sfreshwaterfish.
The last major research was done in late
1980 by Rohan Pethiyagoda bringing to
lightmanymore freshwater fishes.
Assessment of the population status of
each freshwater fish species inmajor river
basins and assessment of the species that
have not been recorded for a long time -
more than30 years - are themainobjecti-
vesof thepresent survey.
Studying the river basins in the north and
east is thus oneof themajor objectives of
theproject.
The research teamwhomade thediscovery
includedNadeekaHapuarachchi, Sameera
Akmeemana, Krishan Wewellwala, Indika
WijesekeraandLasithSiriwardena.
They were thankful to the Nations Trust
Bankwhose funds helped support this re-
search.
So much for M. Rodrigo in the Sunday
Times.
Chance importation
The Red Rasborawill thus never intentio-
nally turnup in largenumbers in the trade.
But Iwasabsolutelydelightedwhen,inDe-
cember2012,while inspectingan importa-
tionofwhatwerepurported tobe
Rasbo-
roides vaterifloris
at Aquarium Glaser, I
found that it did indeed contain a few of
that species but themajority of the con-
signment consisted of the elusive Mein-
ken’s FairyDandiya.Thiswill undoubtedly
be theonlyopportunity I ever have to see
this fish in such large numbers. But since
then therehavebeen15 specimens swim-
ming inoneofmy aquaria,demonstrating
that olddreams can come true even after
35years.
These little - onlyaround2-3 cm long - fis-
heshaveproved fairlyundemandingwhen
it comes tomaintenance.They are neither
particularly susceptible to disease nor
prone tostress.Evenso,suchdelicate fishes
arebestmaintained ina speciesaquarium,
as they toleratecompetitiononlypoorly.
*The original article can be found at:
us_16.html
