How many countries have you kept?

[I Like Rare Fish]

Confusing title, but out of curiosity how many countries have the fish you’ve kept totaled? For example, if I kept beta macrostoma the countries that the fish would count for would be Brunei and Malaysia. So how many countries? Introduced does not count. I used fishbase.se and other independent study maps for my range

For me it’s:

Asia: Yemen, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Brunei Darrusalem, China, Phillipines

North America: United States of America, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras

Africa: Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Somalia, Djibouti, Comoros, Mauritius,

South America: Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Paraguay (questionable), Argentina (questionable)

Oceania: Palau, Australia, Solomon Islands, Micronesia,

Territories: Mayotte (France), British Indian Ocean Territory (UK), Reunion (France), Cocos [Keeling] Island (Australia), Christmas Island (Australia),

Total comes out to 67 countries (2 questionable) and 5 territories, which if i were to count Mayotte & Reunion as France and British Indian Ocean Territory as UK (which I will not) I would have 69 countries. Note that I am probably forgetting over half the fish I've kept, but my country total would be roughly 70.

 

[GaryE]

That is an interesting concept.
Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire,Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Congo-Brazzaville, Costa Rica, Cuba, Democratic rep of Congo, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, USA, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam.

I'm not much of a list maker, but that was interesting to see the number of countries freshwater species have shown up in the hobby from. It was an interesting exercise. I had a cheat though - Epiplatys spilargyreius is a fish I've had a few times and it covers a huge expanse of Africa.

How many of those countries have we all visited? Not nearly enough of them.

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

I also had a cheat, African Tiger Scat are freshwater, brackish, and salt, and they have been known to reach all the way into the indopacific islands. So they made up lots of islands in my list!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Interesting!

I have had biotopes and regional tanks from: Wyoming; Southeast Asia (Thailand/Cambodia/Southern Myanmar), Sumatra (a rice paddy); northern Brazil and Venezuela (a flooded rain forest); central Asia, concentrating on Yunnan province, Nepal, extreme northeast India, and northern Myanmar. A smattering of others: Indonesia, Central America, Malaysia, eastern Europe (goldfish?), southern India. My tanks have never ventured into the wide world of African fish, but GaryE has me thinking. I've always kind of wanted to try a West African pond or ditch.

I haven't visited any of these except Wyoming, where I am in the midst of a rather lengthy residency.

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

African fish are well worth it!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yes, it would! Going back to Gary's question of how many we have visited: One of the things I love about biotope (or sorta-biotopes like mine) is the research and re-creating. It is a way of forming a connection to another place in the world, almost experiencing its ecology, landscape, and people. It's almost like visiting.

A cool story that I've probably shared before: My dad fought in the Vietnam war, including a few of those "unofficial" missions into areas where our country wasn't supposed to be. He came to visit one time when I had my Southeast Asia tank going. It had a backdrop modeled after the Angkor temples in Cambodia, and I tried to be very true to the region, even down to my choice of plants.

One evening, I came into the living room to see that my dad had pulled a chair over and was studying the tank. After a while, he said, "You know, I walked through a lot of water over there. I never had any idea there was all this beauty under the surface."

Ah, art and nature. Real-life magic.

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

As for visitted…I’ve visited all over the US and Mexico, in 10 days im off to Costa Rica, Panama, and either Nicaragua or El Salvador.

 

[elephantnose3334]

South America: Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. Nothing else.