NEWS107
8
Habitatof
Garracambodgiensis
inPakChong,centralThailand.
Maintenanceandbreeding
The maintenance of the Siamese Algae
EaterandtheStonelappingMinnow iseasy.
Both species grow to around 15 cm long
andshouldbekept ingroups.Waterchemi-
stry (pHandhardness) isofsubordinate im-
portanceas these fishesareveryadaptable
in this respect.In thecaseof
Garracambod-
giensis
only juvenilesareveryhard-working
algae eaters,with adults preferring to eat
"normal" fish food,while theSiameseAlgae
Eater isanexcellenteradicatorofalgae life-
long. Because both species develop an
order of rank and thus exhibit very inter-
estingsocialbehavior,theirmaintenance in
the aquarium canbe recommended even
where there isn'tasmuchneed for comba-
tingalgae.These fishesaren'tbredcommer-
gravelanddon'tpracticeanybroodcare.By
contrast
Crossocheilus
species, just like the
members of the genus
Epalzeorhynchus,
havebeen induced to spawnonlywith the
aidofhormone injections suchasareused
for food fishes (egRainbowTrout),as these
fishes are thought toundertake spawning
migrations in thewild andhence it is diffi-
culttotriggerspontaneousspawning inthe
aquarium. Even soperiodic chance spaw-
ningsdo takeplace in theaquarium.These
fishes likewise don't practice any brood
care. In
Garracambodgiensis
males and fe-
males canbedistinguishedon thebasisof
headshape,while in
Crossocheilusoblongus
femalescanberecognizedonlybytheirrat-
herplumper shape (seephotos).
Garracambodgiensis
Literatur
:
Kottelat,M. (2000):Diagnosesof anewgenus
and64new speciesof fishes fromLaos (Te-
leostei:Cyprinidae,Balitoridae,Bagridae,Syn-
gnathidae,ChaudhuriidaeandTetraodonti-
dae).Journal of SouthAsianNaturalHistoryv.
5 (no.1):37-82.
Smith,H.M. (1931):Descriptionsofnewge-
neraand speciesof Siamese fishes.Procee-
dingsof theUnitedStatesNationalMuseum
v.79 (no.2873):1-48,Pl.1.
Smith,H.M. (1945):The fresh-water fishesof
Siam,orThailand.Bulletinof theUnitedStates
NationalMuseumNo.188: i-xi +1-622,Pls.1-9.
Tan,H.H.&M.Kottelat (2009):The fishesof the
BatangHari drainage,Sumatra,withdescrip-
tionof sixnew species. Ichthyological Explo-
rationof Freshwatersv.20 (1):13-69.
ciallyhere inGermanyas it ismoreecono-
mical to import them from Thailand. But
fundamentally
Garra
species haveproved
relativelyuncomplicatedwhen it comes to
breeding.Likebarbstheyspawnovercoarse
Lexicon
Algaeeaters
Crossocheilusmeans "fringed lip"
oblongusmeans "oblong", "rectan-
gular"
Garra: fromaname incommonuse
inBengal foroneof the species
Epalzeorhynchusmeans "witha
powerful snout"
taeniatameans "striped", "banded "
siamensismeans "fromSiam";Siam
is theoldname forThailand.
kalopterusmeans "withbeautiful
fins"
cambodgiensismeans "fromCam-
bodia".
