NUTRAFIN Nr.3/USA 17-07-2003 11:28 Pagina 1 Aquatic News 2,50 US$/3,50 Can$/2,50 Euro/2 £/5 Aus$ £/5 2,50 US$/3,50 Can$/2,50 Euro/2 AngelfishesAngelfishes Issue #3 Issue #3 - 2003 www.hagen.com NUTRAFIN Nr.3/USA 17-07-2003 11:28 Pagina 2 Simulates full daylight Intensifies fish colors, Promotes coral, For growing plants Full spectrum Standard intensity Standard Intensity promotes plant growth invertebrate and Standard Intensity Beneficial for planted Visible actinic blue Refreshing, natural Standard Intensity plant growth Warm photosynthetic aquariums spectrum white light Photosynthetic growing High color temperature Spectrum Intense illumination Simulates deep Total illumination for lamp for simulation of natural Ideal for planted Bright, natural lighting marine light marine spectrum freshwater aquariums Ideal for freshwater aquariums or For freshwater, Highly beneficial plants Strong actinic peak for terrariums saltwater, and planted for corals and other photosynthetic deep aquariums invertebrates marine spectrum Total illumination for living corals, marine algae and freshwater plants Distributed by: Canada: Rolf C. Hagen Inc., Montreal, QC H4R 1E8 U.S.A.: Rolf C. Hagen (U.S.A.) Corp., Mansfield, MA. 02048 U.K.: Rolf C. Hagen (U.K.) Ltd., Castleford, W. Yorkshire WF10 5QH NUTRAFIN Nr.3/USA 17-07-2003 11:28 Pagina 3 Editorial Editorial Dear Reader has long ceased to be the case. NUTRAFIN Aquatic NUTRAFIN Aquatic News News is now well and truly believes in sticking to a suc- international – published in no cessful formula. In this issue less than six different lan- you will again find the red guages. Everyone is talking thread leading through the about it and not just in the pages – this time referring to world of the aquarium hobby. the angelfish, the former king of Our editorial office receives on aquarium fishes (former only a daily basis inquiries regard- because the discus has pushed ing biotope aquaria. People it into second place). After the who have previously had no in- neon and cardinals (NAN #1) volvement with the best of and the guppies (NAN #2) we hobbies want to get started and now come to this group that has do it right: true to nature or likewise won the hearts of biotope. Although such animal and aquarium-lovers aquaria have been discussed worldwide. Angels, like the for decades, they have only community fishes covered in the now, thanks to NAN, gained a two previous issues of NAN, are firm foothold. You find the con- an ornament to (almost) every cept wherever you look, at con- Pterophyllum scalare – the Angelfish – the first drawing, aquarium. They come from the ferences and exhibitions (page made by the well-known naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace Amazon and its basin and 14), in magazines and books, (1823-1913), who collected the fish during his trip to survive only in the rain forest the Rio Negro and Uaupés (1848-1852). and on the Internet, not to men- (or in the aquarium). tion discussions at fish auc- Which reminds me of a splendid tions, in aquarium clubs, and at quotation from the meeting of lectures. Even the trade has got Contents the indigenous peoples of South wind of it: suddenly biotope America and forest-dependent and natural aquaria are being peoples (and does this not promoted in brochures, in Fishes in nature and in the aquarium 4 apply to us all?) in Leticia, leaflets, and in magazine ad- Angelfishes and their history Colombia, on 9th November verts. Biotopes and nature have 1996: “All peoples are descen- become the guiding light for Aquatic plants in nature 6 dants of the forest. When the many people, and this can have and in the aquarium forest dies we die. We are given only a positive effect. Fishes responsibility to maintain bal- (and plants) should as far as Aquarium technology 8 ance within the natural world. possible be kept as Nature in- External filters When any part is destroyed, all tended (100% authenticity is balance is cast into chaos. virtually impossible), and then The aquarium hobby on the Internet 8 When the last tree is gone, and we will have an environment the last river is dead, then peo- that provides a fascinating ple will learn that we cannot glimpse of life above and below Do-it-yourself 9 eat gold and silver. To nurture water. And not just that: we can Basic aquascaping - Part 1 the land is our obligation to our enjoy something and simultane- ancestors, who passed this to us ously learn from it (practically New practical products 10 of future generations....” all of our knowledge is derived WaterHome, Fish Feeder, If we follow this precept then from Nature). In addition, there Master Test Kit, New Foods our children and our children’s is the relaxing effect (the pres- children will have a future. The ence of an aquarium has now New in the trade 11 same applies to the best of been found to ameliorate the hobbies: with biotope- and Fishes and plants incurable Allzheimer’s disease). species-correct maintenance A biotope aquarium makes the our hobby has a future and we best of hobbies even better – in Biotope aquaria 12 can enjoy it at its best. every respect. And in the 21st For angelfishes century the general view that Yours, an aquarium is a lot of work Aquarium history 13 Heiko Bleher Part 3: The story continues… NUTRAFIN Aquatic News Scientific adviser: Dr. Jacques Géry Publisher: Aquapress Lithos: Fotlito ‘73, Borghetto Lod. (LO), Italy Nutrafin news Layout: Rossella Bulla & Heiko Bleher Editor-in-Chief: Heiko Bleher 14 Copy editor: Heiko Bleher Editorial address: Nutrafin Aquatic News Nutrafin for the first time presents Printer: Grafiche Dessì s.r.l., Italy Via G. Falcone 11, a discus biotope set-up at Photos: Aquapress archives 27010 Miradolo Terme (Pavia), Italy unless otherwise stated [email protected] - www. Hagen.com the 4th International Discus Championship NAN is printed on paper produced using Tel. +390382 754707 - Fax +390382 754129 chlorine-free bleach 3 NUTRAFIN Aquatic News 3 NUTRAFIN Nr.3/USA 17-07-2003 11:28 Pagina 4 Fishes in nature and in the aquarium “The Indio tirelessly dipped his round remo (paddle) deep in the waters of the tea-coloured Rio Negro and thrust backwards powerfully so that our unsteady dug-out moved a little further upstream. The sun burnt down on us mercilessly. The thermometer showed 40 degrees in the shade. A fresh- water dolphin surfaced close to the boat, shooting a fountain of water into the air, about 30 blue- yellow aras flew away squawking above us, and woolley monkeys leapt shrieking from branch to branch in the canopy of the impenetrable jungle. We had been six hours en route to the place where there were supposed to be acara bandeiras. I didn’t know what these were, but perhaps the legendary angelfish which I had been hunting everywhere for years...?” Unfortunately many popular scientific publications contain a The species had been scientifically AngelfishesAngelfishes rather confused jumble of views on what constitutes the cur- named as long ago as 1823. In Berlin an- rently valid taxonomy of the genus Pterophyllum – that of the other German, Martin Heinrich Carl Licht- and their history angelfishes. I will endeavour to provide an overview here. enstein (1780-1857), described the species First of all, below there are drawings of the head region made scalaris from the east of Brazil and placed by Heiko Bleher by Natasha Khardina. The detail drawings of the 3 scientifi- it in the genus Zeus, which Linnaeus had cally recognised species were prepared from the type materi- ...and the storyteller, the German Bruno al (without scales), and those of the local variants from erected in 1758. Lichtenstein may have Sagratzki, did in fact manage to collect the been thinking of a ladder (the Latin adjec- very first the live angelfishes, in 1909. He tive scalaris = ladder-like), possibly of the could hardly believe his eyes when, after markings like the rungs of a ladder or – as several exciting collecting trips in the 1 Meinken has put it: because of the ladder- Amazon region, he finally held this fish, like rise of the dorsal and anal fins of the known locally as acara bandeira (which specimen collected by Marcus Elieser translates as flag cichlid) in his hands. Bloch (1723-99). In 1831 the Frenchman Even though after the six-hour canoe jour- Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frederic ney he captured only a single specimen. 2 Dagobert Cuvier (1769-1832) apparently Luckily for us, however, he later caught 50 described the same specimen after a visit juveniles with a dip-net in a bay in the to Berlin by his colleague Valenciennes, vicinity of Manaos (= Manaus). He found but this time as Platax scalaris. Now, this them in deeper water near a steep bank was understandable, as the elegant fishes characterised by overhanging marginal of the genus Platax, which Cuvier had vegetation. During the months-long voy- 3 erected in 1816 and which today is re- age back he acclimatised his angelfishes to stricted exclusively to marine species, are a water temperature of 77°F – from a start- also very tall and majestic, and the an- ing point of 89.6°F. gelfishes resemble them in some respects. In English-speaking countries they are However, in 1840 the famous zoologist known almost exclusively as angelfishes Jakob Heckel gave the angelfish its own or angels, because their finnage resembles genus name: Pterophyllum (the Greek an angel’s wings. But Sagratzki called 4 words ptero = wing, feather (= fin in fish them Blattfische (leaf-fishes), and at the taxonomy) and phyllon = leaf), signifying time of the first importation to Germany “leaf with fins”– perhaps this is where they were known only by this name (and Brehms got the name Blattfisch.