Today's shots of Gabon killies

[GaryE]

I'll start with a well named one, Aphyosemion gabunense, a fish I've had for some time now. This male is from generation 3.

 

[GaryE]

Here's a Platopochilus lampeye. It's an undescribed species hopefully to be distributed as P. Sp GCDELMM 24-18. Maybe it'll get a real name someday. It's a shoaler that likes fast water.

 

[GaryE]

This one is a devil to photograph, because it is a rich baby blue I can't get to show in photos. It's probably Aphyosemion escherichi, and we caught it at a place called the Cascades Tchad.

 

[Back in the fold]

That Lampeye is a little beauty . Subtle colors almost metallic .

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I got excited as soon as I saw your thread title in "What's new." I don't use the word "stunning" lightly, but those are stunning.

 

[gwand]

Here's a Platopochilus lampeye. It's an undescribed species hopefully to be distributed as P. Sp GCDELMM 24-18. Maybe it'll get a real name someday. It's a shoaler that likes fast water.
View attachment 331524

How about naming it GaryE!

 

[Sgooosh]

How about naming it GaryE!

Platopochilus garyEnse

 

[GaryE]

Fred. I will call him Fred and feed him well.

Hobbyist descriptions have generally not aged well. Those days are in the past. I can read DNA when it's only three letters... I'm just not the meticulous type of person who can do the kind of detailed work needed. There will be no Platopochilus gwandi found beside P. backinthefoldi.

@Back in the fold very kindly sent me an American Killifish Association journal with a long, detailed article on Platopochilus lampeyes in one corner of Gabon, a region we never got to to. The complexity of what had happened there as far as species formation goes was jaw dropping. These fish are not knock you over with their colours and then breed like mice the way mbuna from Lake Malawi are, but they may be the next 'OMG, look at how many species have evolved in one region" wonders to have been found. The estimates on the number of 'undiscovered' (the locals know them well and often have recipes for them) species are something to consider.There are several dozen waiting to be studied now.

I daydream about getting a group of like minded people together and spending about 2 weeks sampling creeks in Gabon. Bad roads, bad food, nasty hotels - no problem. I bet such a trip, even though there have already been dozens of them, could still find ten or more unknown species. DNA research is showing a lot of stuff right under our noses that our eyes can't distinguish. We barely mark down they existed before the type of economy we favour kills them.

Lampeyes are frustrating because while I know I like them, try finding them. As usual, the Europeans are far ahead of North America on this, and there are species hanging on the edge of the hobby in Germany. I had kept 2 Platopochilus after looking for them for 30 years, and doubled that with my trip. Procatopus from Cameroon sometimes come in, and they are beauties. They don't stay though, as people don't breed them and they are of no interest to farms. They give a few eggs daily, and the farms like fish that produce lots of fry in big groups.

Still, in the early 1990s, fish friends shook their heads at me when I talked about picking small numbers of Poropanchax normanni lampeyes out of bags of Cichlids and tetras in Guinean and Nigerian shipments. Since then, normanni have caught on. They have a fraction of the beauty of what's been found since. So there's hope others will get to explore these creatures.

 

[Seisage]

Fred. I will call him Fred and feed him well.

Hobbyist descriptions have generally not aged well. Those days are in the past. I can read DNA when it's only three letters... I'm just not the meticulous type of person who can do the kind of detailed work needed. There will be no Platopochilus gwandi found beside P. backinthefoldi.

@Back in the fold very kindly sent me an American Killifish Association journal with a long, detailed article on Platopochilus lampeyes in one corner of Gabon, a region we never got to to. The complexity of what had happened there as far as species formation goes was jaw dropping. These fish are not knock you over with their colours and then breed like mice the way mbuna from Lake Malawi are, but they may be the next 'OMG, look at how many species have evolved in one region" wonders to have been found. The estimates on the number of 'undiscovered' (the locals know them well and often have recipes for them) species are something to consider.There are several dozen waiting to be studied now.

I daydream about getting a group of like minded people together and spending about 2 weeks sampling creeks in Gabon. Bad roads, bad food, nasty hotels - no problem. I bet such a trip, even though there have already been dozens of them, could still find ten or more unknown species. DNA research is showing a lot of stuff right under our noses that our eyes can't distinguish. We barely mark down they existed before the type of economy we favour kills them.

Lampeyes are frustrating because while I know I like them, try finding them. As usual, the Europeans are far ahead of North America on this, and there are species hanging on the edge of the hobby in Germany. I had kept 2 Platopochilus after looking for them for 30 years, and doubled that with my trip. Procatopus from Cameroon sometimes come in, and they are beauties. They don't stay though, as people don't breed them and they are of no interest to farms. They give a few eggs daily, and the farms like fish that produce lots of fry in big groups.

Still, in the early 1990s, fish friends shook their heads at me when I talked about picking small numbers of Poropanchax normanni lampeyes out of bags of Cichlids and tetras in Guinean and Nigerian shipments. Since then, normanni have caught on. They have a fraction of the beauty of what's been found since. So there's hope others will get to explore these creatures.

I'm so curious about this, as someone who works closely with scientists who identify and describe new species. Were you the one who collected this unknown Platopochilus? Do you know of any researchers or institutions who might have also sampled this undescribed species? If you have the time and energy, I would recommend reaching out to someone who studies killifish. Your fish may not end up being useful to them, depending on how they collect and analyze their data (your fish would be a single data point collected at a very different time, and possibly location, than anything else they collect), but I think it's worth asking.

It's possible there could be someone out there who would be very interested in sequencing the DNA of the one(s) you have to see if it matches anything else in genetic databases or within personal datasets. To tell you the truth, most newly discovered species don't actually ever end up getting described (which is more of a bureaucratic process than a scientific one, really), but their DNA is still very useful. If you do ever find a researcher who's interested, might be worth considering sending them tissue samples (or the whole body) once the fish passes, although I'll be honest I have no idea if clove oil might damage the DNA molecules.

I have to say, Fred is a fantastic name

Edit: oops, I see this is somewhat of an older thread. I hope you don't mind me reviving it. I'm very interested in your experiences collecting fish from the field!

Edit 2: Actually just found your other thread where you explain that you tagged along with researchers Sounds like a very cool experience and I hope they got good data. I have to say, I absolutely would not mind enduring a couple weeks of airports and awful roads for a trip like that. And you're right, I'm positive there would still be more undescribed species to find!

 

[GaryE]

Most of the fish we caught included specimens preserved for researchers. We left a diverse bunch of barbs with a Gabonese researcher, and some other fish ended up in Europe. The Platopocheilus went to a person studying them. He said he has a sudden growing backlog.

I'm just a nerd with a net. As the old Irish expression goes, I may not have gone to the school but I met the scholars on their way out.

I would love to go back. My experience is limited to one collecting trip, but I don't think I have ever learned so much in 12 days as I did on that trip. I've been looking at google earth and daydreaming. I strongly support the idea of working with local people. The old days when people of European backgrounds went into countries, collected fish and took everything home (or smuggled aquarium fish out) should be history.

 

[Ichthys]

Edit 2: Actually just found your other thread where you explain that you tagged along with researchers

Gary undersells himself. He “tags along” with Anton Lamboj and the like… the world’s leading ichthyologists. The ones that discover the fish and write the books.

 

[Seisage]

Most of the fish we caught included specimens preserved for researchers. We left a diverse bunch of barbs with a Gabonese researcher, and some other fish ended up in Europe. The Platopocheilus went to a person studying them. He said he has a sudden growing backlog.

I'm just a nerd with a net. As the old Irish expression goes, I may not have gone to the school but I met the scholars on their way out.

I would love to go back. My experience is limited to one collecting trip, but I don't think I have ever learned so much in 12 days as I did on that trip. I've been looking at google earth and daydreaming. I strongly support the idea of working with local people. The old days when people of European backgrounds went into countries, collected fish and took everything home (or smuggled aquarium fish out) should be history.

It's true, backlogs of samples are the scientist's most common enemy haha.

And yes, field research is some of the most difficult and rewarding work I've ever done. I completely agree that more effort needs to be put into involving locals with the research that happens in their homes. It's gotten better, but we still have a long way to go. You might already be familiar with the term, but the phenomenon you mentioned is still enough of an issue that "parachute science" has been coined to describe it.

I am very glad you got to have that experience though, especially as someone who has so much experience keeping, breeding, and raising killies (you even have me considering killie breeding at some point in the future!). One can have vast amounts of knowledge that are valuable to science, and yet not be a scientist on paper. It can be a challenging position to be in, but it seems like your knowledge is valued by at least one corner of the freshwater fish biology field!