Nothobranchius

I was reading through the forum and I found a thread on nothobranchius, and I thought, what a shame it is that they are Blacklisted. Later when I was reading the BL I saw that only 4 types of nothobranchius are blacklisted. Are we allowed to talk about the other types? The bigger question is are we alowwed to keep and breed the other types?

Thanks,
Mitch

 

Pardon my ignorance bur what are these things you speak of?

 

Killifish, easy to breed and keep. Stunning fish.

 

Most killifish are endangered due to their ever decreasing habitats and one need permits to keep/breed them.
I can not see anything wrong, - talking about them, as long as we all know that some of them are blacklisted, for a very good reason!
Maybe some of our Killifish keepers can advice...

 

Is Nothobranchius Eggersi endangered?

 

Hi Guys,

I am sorry to say that Nothobranchius are not endangered at all and that they are not threatened by any exploitation. I say this because I do research on them. They are also not all blacklisted, only Nothobranchius rachovi and Nothobranchius orthonotus. Nothobranchius orthonotus occurs in northern KZN and southern Mozambique but occurs in many areas and is not at all threatened, also not in SA. Nothobranchius rachovi did occur in one pan in the Kruger National Park, until the National Parks Board pushed a road through the pan, they have not been seen since, except that some were collected by Dr Brian Watters before then (perfectly legally with all the necessary permits from Parks Board), an ex-South African living in Canada. He has subsequently released fishes into the pan again, but the fishes have not established themselves. The latest is that these Notho species have now been renamed Nothobranchius pienaarii and this means that the ban on true Nothobranchius rachovi is no longer valid. The reason why they were on the blast list was because these two species occurred in SA, now N rachovi does not any longer so they may as well lift the ban on Nothobranchius rachovi and only hold the ban on Nothobranchius orthonotus. All other Nothos are not banned.

Nothobranchius eggersii is certainly not banned, you get a blue and a red form and they are stunning little fishes. You must acquint yourself with their breeding requirements and then you can keep them very simply. They grow at an astronomical rate and spawn very quickly and lay masses of eggs in a short space of time. Depending on which species you keep they could last for 3-4 months or they could last a few years.

The SA boffin on Nothos is Tyrone Genade, who is a doing a doctorate on them at UCT, he is researching aging in these fishes as some get old very quickly and others do not. Other persons who keep Nothos are Otto Schmidt, a good friend of Brian Watters who stays in CT. If you send me a PM I can send you Tyrone's email address, but I will not post it for privacy reasons, you can also google because he has his own website.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Just a foot note guys - you need permits to keep any native fish.

 

Hi Henk,

So what you are saying is that you would need permits for Nothobranchius orthonotus and currently for Nothobranchius rachovi and in future for Nothobranchius pienaarii and no longer for Nothobranchius rachovi.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

What I am saying is that if you want to keep an indigenous animal in captivity you need a permit.

 

Ok fine Henk,

Thanks for clarifying this for us.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Im so glad they're not endangered! Now I can finally get them.

 

Hi Mitch,

Killifish in general and Nothobranchius specifically have always had a specialist following and the oldest fish clubs and organizations are in actual fact killifish organizations.

You should google for the BKA, the British Killifish Association and the AKA, the American Killifish Association, they have websites and hundreds of members exchanging eggs on a regular basis.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

This is amazing news. Thanks for that Henk and the Prof.

 

Why may blacklisted fish not be discussed in a thread?

 

@Jenny cause you will get locked up and though away for speaking about things that may not be mentioned...

It is like Drugs, they are illigal so we cannot speak about them to know how they look or how to treat them if you happen to find them...

It is prefered that we kill them as the people who should know.

 

Firstly, let me say that only Nothobranchius rachovi and Nothobranchius orthonotus are blacklisted, all the rest are not and there is no reason whatsoever, why they cannot be discussed. Secondly the reason why Nothobranchius orthonotus is banned is because it occurs in northern KZN in the Mkuze Game Reserve and areas around there, and a strain of Nothobranchius rachovi occurs along the Kruger Park border. Now the latest news from the scientists is that Nothonbranchius rachovi is actually not one species, but a group of species, and has been split as we call it scientifically into three species. The one from the north of Mozambique in the Beira vicinity remains Nothobranchius rachovi, the strain from the centre of Mozambique is now called Nothobranchius krysanovi and the most southerly strain, the one that occurs on the border of the KNP, is now called Nothobranchius pienaari after the former chief game warden of the KNP Dr U de V Pienaar, who originally discovered the species. What is tragic is that this species was officially collected by Dr Brian Watters, a former South African, who worked all his life as a geologist in Canada, but also worked his whole life on Nothobranchius, and maintained by him in captivity, but the original pool in which they occurred was bulldozed by the National Parks uathority and a road was put through it! Dr Watters has tried to reintroduce the species into this pool which is now much dimished in size, but they do not last there any longer and so the SA National Parks have themselves actually led to the last and only pool of these fishes in South Africa (they also occur in Mozambique as well) being wiped out.

The reason why Nothobranchius rachovi was banned was because it occurred here in South Africa. Well now only Nothobranchius pienaari occurs or occurred in South Africa (and N orthonotus) and the other two species, which are actually much more colourful than N pienaari, can for all intents and purposes be unbanned.

What I would also like to mention is that there has been considerable debate about the discussion of blacklisted fishes under the "rule amendment" thread and if you get to the end of this thread you will see that discussions on blacklisted species will be allowed in future on this forum.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Just to clarify, once again, the discussion of BL species was never actually banned, but the discussion of keeping/breeding/trading/selling of them is what is actually not allowed on TASA.

The whole reason why so many threads were originally closed was because at some point in all these threads, someone would eventually turn around and say something along the lines of 'cool fish, where can I get them?' or 'The ones I have in my tank have started breeding' or many other similar comments. This is what was infact banned.

As has been stated in a few other threads, we as a group of mods, may have gotten a little heavy handed with our handling of such threads for a time, but this was partly due to the high number of threads that kept going down this line. There were also a few 'members' that deliberately and repeatedly caused arguements in these threads. They have been moved on now though, and the forum seems to have become a nicer place again where we can allow threads like the 'Rule Ammmmendment' thread which discussed the rules with regards to the BL discussion in a sensible and comfortable manner where the thread (for the best part) was kept on track.

Even when the new 'forum' is opened for the discussion of BL species, there will still be set rules in place, and these will include the Trading/selling/breeding, but Rory and 'us mods' still have to discuss the final ruling on this.

As for the Killies, as Dirk so kindly pointed out, there is no problem keeping killies, but as with all fish, you should always find out the scientific name, and check it against the Blacklist in the Rules forum here. That way you can be certain that what you have is ok to have.

Once, or more like if, the new BL comes into being, we will announce this, and adjust the list accordingly, so that you all can see whats then ok to keep, but until it is law, this is the list that is to be followed.

Regards
G!

 

Thanks for the fascinating information Professor; I always like to hear about current research and conservation of fish species.