Fundulus arnoldi Boulenger
Fundulus arnoldi Boulenger was represented in eight copies of the planned Schroot'shen import, three of them, one male and two females, I acquired, while the remaining five were in the orders of Mr. Job. Thumm, Dresden, surrender. If the catcher, Herr Groch, was not exactly suggestive, we men and women had definitely considered this Fundulus to be two different species, so great is the difference between the two sexes; But Mr. Groch assured us that he had caught these fish together in a small pool and that it had to be some kind.

As usual, when I have the choice, it is far easier to look in than old ones, and if fish that have just arrived, especially in the cold one. Years of age, sparkling in rich colors, that's never a good sign. I brought my "new one" home safely in spite of the prevailing cold outside and took care of their proper accommodation. The fish, of which the male and one female measured 3 cm, the wide female about 2 1/4 cm in total length, were not directly sick, but, since they were during the trip did not seem to have eaten any food so lean and dull that great care was required to keep them alive. The main condition was that the fish were feeding went. I gave them Cyclops but left them same untouched; this little crust could give them Hop right off the mouth, she didn't even snap at it. Also on Daphnia they didn't respond, glass worms that otherwise everything from the carnivorous toothcarps be preferred to other foods, they irritated neither. As a last try, I gave them some small white worms (enchytraeus) and also Tubifex, which they took after a while Every day my new Fundulus healed some of these little worms and since I had noticed that digestion was also going well, I had no longer any worries about life these children of pain.

A few days later, Mr. Thumm write to me that he should come to him greatest misery all five copies of this new Fundulus species had entered, he had given himself all the terrible trouble that To get animals to eat, but in vain and apparently the fish starved to death, because at the section of the corpses it was found that neither in the stomach nor in the intestines they were any content. Presumably has the renewed cooling that the fish on the short trip to Dresden were exposed to the animals that were severely exhausted anyway given.

I was now the owner of the only three surviving specimens of this Fundulus and continued therefore everything to ensure that the little animals are not only alive but also, if possible, for Bring procreation. Gradually went these small Fundulus also on mosquito larvae, small water isopods, rainworms and finally on Cyclops and Daphnia; since I took care of it that your table is always plentiful and varied was covered, the fish recovered too. The coloring became more and more splendid and the man's fin jewelry, while the female apparently increased in love fulness Everyone who saw the fish was delighted their blaze of color and I was on all sides envied for their possessions. Late January 1906 the male had a total length of 4 1/2 cm, the larger female, which in the growth was very slow and little growth I found dead in the aquarium one morning.

On the enclosed color chart Fig. 1, a and b is my paraben in natural size, im fully grown condition, reproduced. Daw Females a spawn ripe, the male b in highest sexual development.

As already mentioned, this is the coloration small Fundulus extremely appealing.

The body of the male is blue-green, this coloration changes towards the back into a dark olive green and towards the belly into a deep yellowish green. On the sides there are are numerous carmine to violet red spots, which unite behind the eye to form irregular lines and occelli. The eye is large and lively. Pectoral fins on the outer edge of the fins are orange-yellow and the also orange-yellow and dotted. Through the upper half of the dorsal fin is a broad dark band. Dark brown is also the top and bottom Edging of the caudal fin. The male's throat is dark red and the lower lip light blue.

Against the intense coloration of the male the female must be described as unremarkable. The body of the female is olive-green with red with red spots, towards the back the basic color turns brownish; the belly is slightly pinkish. the belly is slightly pinkish. The paired fins are yellowish, the unpaired fins are grayish brown with red spots. Not only in the coloration, but above all in the form of the of the unpaired fins, the difference between the the sexes is striking; I do not need to go into detail here on the formation of the fins, since it is clearly evident from the illustration. My Fundulus couple lived in a harmonious marriage, and in cloudy weather they swam miserably around in the aquarium or often stood for a long time in one place close to the ground, They lay ramshackle on the floor when whether they want to dig themselves out; but left the Seeing the sun, so vain friends raved, then "he" made her court with peculiar jerky movements, as it were if he wanted to wave to her, he stood in front of him for a longer period of time her, then he spread his fins and danced formlick around in front of her as if to ask her: "Am I not pretty?". She went to his commercials one and approached him, so, he became more and more passionate; but she was equally valid and dodged him, then he transferred some of her Puff until they are somewhere in the tangle of plants withdrew from his calls. These love games were recovering almost daily and became more and more persistent, the closer the time of the lay maturity of the female approached. There, on a Sunday, I observed the spawning business for the first time. The female is held tight by the male close to the ground, usually on a water plant, on a stone or on an unevenness of the ground. The male presses the back half of the body tightly against the female, which releases an egg with trembling movement, a powerful blow with the caudal peduncle and the caudal fin on the part of the male, whereby sand and mud are thrown up and immediately cover the most of the ice, and both fish leave the spawning site to repeat the act of spawning elsewhere. The egg is likely to be fertilized by the male the moment it emerges. the pairings played in this way, with small or large pauses, while the female is vigorously pursued and driven by the male, around noon am off; then the supply of the female seems to be exhausted and male and female, visibly slack, gave themselves up to rest. Since there is no brood care for the egg-laying toothcarps, I caught both fish from the breeding aquarium in the afternoon and left the eggs to their fate. The eggs, some of which I saw in the afternoon, which had not been covered by the swirling ground, are transparent yellowish green, their diameter is about 3/4 mm. On the second day, a trubing became noticeable in the Eirn that I was able to observe, in the further course the time this opacity increased, so that this Spawning grains completely milky white opaque on the fourth day were. For several days I saw her lying in this state, without any change perceive in them. From the eighth day on, the eggs began to be covered with mushrooms. I had long since given up hope of obtaining young from these eggs, but left everything in the aquarium untouched, as I still expected the eggs lying in the ground to develop normally, the number of which must not be insignificant. The water temperature above the eggs fluctuated between 22-28 Celsius, the floor itself was 2-4 Celsius warmer due to the heating. Due to the strong evaporation, the water level had increased and decreased in the course of time and, since I did not fill up, was only about 10 cm towards the end of Mars 1906. The plants (myriophylls) grew lush. In the aquarium there was nothing to be found of the juvenile fish, the eggs lying open on the floor had dissolved; I rummaged through the ground near the plants and stones with a glass rod and asked for many eggs to be allowed, but they looked completely opaque, milk-white. It stood I now found out that all of the eggs had become unfertilized, either they had been, so to speak, aborted from the female in an immature state by the male's stormy courtship, or the male must not have been ripe yet; I would like but take the former as certain, for that male was well developed and in any case completely sexually mature.

In the meantime the female was ready to spawn again and I brought the parchen back to the breeding tank, where it spawned again at the beginning of April 1906. This time, too, the eggs turned out to be incapable of development. If there are several eggs that I Observing microscopes, I was able to go up to the fourth I followed the development of the embryos for days, so they were fertilized. Set on the fifth day the cloudiness returned, and on the tenth day were all eggs, also those in the bottom sludge lying down, puffed up again, like the first time. So here something had to be out of order! On my assumption that eggs are such disemal When they were not fully matured when they spawned, I separated the two parents before by sliding the aquarium through an inserted matte glass panel. At first everything went well, both males and females ate hard and begged each other Spawning business soon recovered; in the female I was able to notice the increasing fullness of the body again at the end of April I am sorry that the freshness of the both fish slackened considerably; from that morning The food brought in was still in the afternoon Almost everything is available, including the glass worm, which is usually immediately after introduction were eaten, were still found. Should mutual longing or loneliness die Be the cause of slackening? I removed that the pane of glass separating the parcel and soon afterwards the man swam by the side of the Female, where it now stayed and also soon began with the love games. Accurate the freshness returned to the little animals again and after a week both are in perfect shape again, to which the sunny days of May probably contributed theirs had. It was already indescribable Color of the man with striking rays of the sun. The female soon stroked off again Spawn, and on May 29, 1906, early in the morning, my Fundulus spawned for the third time. Again I hoped for a long time to get from these adorable little fish, mine But friends were transformed into pain When I came home that afternoon and found the female dead in the aquarium, the male was lying on his side and was only breathing awake; Although I immediately poured it into fresh water at the same temperature, it did not recover and was also an easy one in the evening. Sic transit gloria mundi! What kind of causes the sudden death of my Fundulus probably may have been, is still a mystery to me today.

Assuming that in the aquarium may have formed humic acid or swamp gas I took a thorough cleaning of the Basin in front. The plants were when out Removal has been properly unwound to remove any eggs that may have been present on them the sand-only substrate with the Hands rummaged through and then the water, which resembled an opaque, thick broth, through a fine gauze sieve carefully poured off the band. Between that remaining in the sieve Filtrate from fine mud I found about fifty eggs, all of which were clearly clear. After this I replanted the aquarium and with fresh water (26 C.) had charged (water level 12 cm), I gave the Schlarum with the eggs back inside, checking some eggs every day through the microscope I could see the first Follow the stages of development of the embryo, i.e. the eggs were fertilized. After some Days showed a gloom of discontent that became more and more intense, and after 14 days I have the same picture as the passing ones Broods: louder, opaque, yellow-white, for Partly already fungal eggs. Another negative success! The reproduction resp. Breeding this Fundulus in the aquarium didn't seem like that after all to be easy, as I had initially believed, and it will probably still be a lot of trouble to succeed must be expended. Maybe it hangs Success also depends solely on the individuality of the person Fish yourself off and do something with you Parchen - more correctly one man and two Females - no trouble. So wait until a new import brings these fish back in sufficient numbers of both sexes to choose a usable breeding pair and try to breed them again.

In spirit, united in death, the little Fundulus found its way into my collection of preparations - in the meantime I had forgotten this one in vain To determine fish is the only description of one West African Fundulus that I found of the literature in my possession was the of the Fundulus gularis Blgr. - Proceedings of the London Zoological Society 1901, P623; Plate 37, Figs. 2 and 3. But this did not agree with my Fundulus , and so the fish remained indefinite at that time. In accordance with the wish of my dear friend Dr. W. Wolterstoff corresponding to him, fish prawns after him Magdeburg and asked Dr. Wolterstoff, a small collection of still undetermined fish, which also contained my little Fundulus Mr. G. A. Boulenger, London, for determination to use. A few weeks later, Mr. Dr. Wolterstorff informed me that my Fundulus spec. was new to science and that Boulenger called him Fundulus arnoldi and as I will describe myself. At my request, Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., London kindly sent me the description of the fish [1] which I will follow in translation: "Fundulus Arnoldi" Blgr. Depth of body 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 times in total length, length of head 3 to 3 1/2 times. Snout a little shorter than eye, the diameter of which is 3 1/3 times in length of head; lower jaw projecting beyond upper; interorbital width 2/5 length of head. Dorsal 15-16, originating slightly in advance of anal, above tenth or eleventh scale of lateral line, and at equal distance from eye and from root of caudal; longest (posterior) ray quite as long as head in males, shorter in females. Anal 15-17, similar to dorsal. Pectoral about 2/3 length of head. Caudal rounded in females, with upper and lower rays produced in males. Caudal peduncle twice as long as deep. Scales 25-27 in longitudinal series, 20-22 round body; an interrupted series of lateral line pits. Pale olive, spotted or dotted with crimson on the head, body, and vertical fins. According to Mr. Arnold's coloured sketches, the male has a blackish band along the upper part of the dorsal and anal fins.

Total length 45 mm.

Several specimens were presented to the British Museum by Mr. J. P. Arnold, of Hamburg; this fish, which he kept in his aquarium, formed part of an interesting series brought over alive from the mouths of the Niger. F. arnoldi is allied to F. bivittatus Loenb., and F. loennbergii, Blgr., but differs from both in the more numerous anal rays.

The news of the successful Sehrootache fish import from West Africa soon spread here, numerous local enthusiasts and traders came to me for the different ones Species of West African fish to be seen take it, and now started under the importers a formal hunt for "African specialties". At the beginning of January 1906, Stuve began his collecting trip to West Africa, based on the results Fishing I reported earlier; then succeeded there are other local dealers among the after Acquiring fishermen traveling to Africa, 'and at the end of August 1906 the company acquired at that time Koppe-Siggelkow the first large fish import from the mouth of the Niger. Since the stay of the concerned sailor in Wari on the Niger had fallen in the time of year when the species Fundulus prevailed there most often, so these toothcarps were represented in large numbers in the broadcast mentioned and, as I found out during the survey on September 1, 1906, were in three species. Also Fundulus arnoldi Blgr. was about twenty Copies of both sexes present. Unfortunately I could not get a piece of this import because it was locked in the possession of Mrs. C. Schneising-Magdeburg, who received it on September 2nd, 1906.

Mr. Walter Kohler, who provided the material for his publications on West African novelties was left by Mr. Schneising at the time, describes in the "Blattern" No. 43, 1906 page 425/426, Fundulus arnoldi Blgr. as Fundulus gularis (?). The picture attached to the work is based on an original recording with " Fundulus spec (gularis?), Male above, female below, those whose fins are still undeveloped. Since it was the West African Fundulus species and fish, which were neither back then Mr. Schneidig was still known to Mr. Kohler So the gentlemen are not to be blamed for their ignorance of the sex differences; as a result of the error concerning the sexes but is of course the description of the female lapsed in the work of Mr. Kohler, likewise the description of the love games. Mr. Kohler writes: "The strange thing that I have seen with this Fundulus so far is that males and females fight - otherwise I can't change the love game with the greatest optimism - growl in pleasure "etc. I jot this perception not done with my real pair, but want them Correctness of Kohler's statement by no means deny because there it is in his case not may have been a normal lovemaking, so is the conception of that "growling" as an expression of the quarrel between two individuals from same sex close by. Since you can find out about the Fundulus anrnoldi Blgr. then never heard anything again, they seem without never having heard anything again, they seem to have surrendered without offspring, all along the way of all flesh be. Meanwhile, Fundulus arnoldi Blgr. life here that can be expected in the next few months This fishing season imports wonderful fishing will be brought back!
1) Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Ser. 8 Vol. II, 11 July 1908, p 29.