Wild caught Vic's

"Malagarasi River just E of mouth into Lake Tanganyika"

That surprised me. Wonder if there are any in Tanganyika itself.

When they go on these expiditions, many times they travel with other scientists. 2007 was the same year those wild caught Victorians came in. They may have all traveled together...

You have posted in this forum: Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:45 pm Post subject:

After my dual trip to Tanganyika and Malawi this October, i will be planning for a trip to Victoria.
Just hard to convince Ad to go to Victoria since the diving is much clearer in Malawi and Tanganyika.
I was supposed to go about 10 years ago, but i broke up with my Kenyan girlfriend at the time, so that was that.

You have posted in this forum: Tue Feb 09, 2010 2:19 am Post subject:

teknikAL wrote (View Post): ›
Oz has some pretty invasive non native species:rat, rabbit, & a huge poison carnivorous toad.

You may have better luck getting close to the scientific community.
Here is the idea. If active collections are being made, contact one of the collectors; researcher, their assistant. If they are sending dried or alchohol specimans, they may be persuaded to send some live.... at least that's the idea.

There is a local fellow with Cornell who has been to Tanzania last year collecting in the rivers looking for synodontis catfish and building "All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI) http://www.siluriformes.org/
I checked the Fishnet2 http://www.fishnet2.net/index.html and saw Cornell on the list of partners. I submitted a query "Genus = Haplochromis" on the Cornell Database and came back with ten collections of Haplochromis most recently in 2007; 5 bloyeti 5 not described. From there I got this link to a maped with the locations of collection with GPS.
http://berkeleymapper.berkeley.edu/run.php?ViewResults=tab&tabfile=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fishnet2.net%2Fportal-presentation%2Fmapper%2Fmapresults%2FfishnetMapResults1265622096682.txt&configfile=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fishnet2.net%2Fportal-presentation%2Fmapper%2Fconfig%2Fbnhm_mapper.xml&label=1&

The idea is to contact him to see if he does send back live collections and when his next expedition is. Here is the issue with Wild Victorian Basin Cichlids. From the data above you can see that the likelyhood of getting an undescribed, unnamed species is very high. 50% of the sampling were unnamed. I don't know if anyone wants unnamed Victorians in the hobby.

I looked for The Austrailian Museum http://australianmuseum.net.au/
and found they are a partner. I query on the same boolean and get this:
http://www.fishnet2.net/portal-presentation/fishnet2portal?action=tableResults&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fbnhm.berkeley.edu%2Fmanis%2FDwC%2Fdarwin2jrwInfodo.xml&table=true
Two specimens held in their collection. Not really sure what they are, there is not much info. It doesn't seem as Oz has much scientific interest in cichlids, well Haplochromis at least.
Looks like you may have to leave the country to own better cichlids, mate...

Hi Al.

Thanks for the links and the research but I can not make the links work.

Besides rat, rabbit and cane toad we also have a lot of cichlids that were released into the waterways. This is why they banned the import of most species. The most notable being A Burtoni but there are other tilapia types as well. There is some natural control of this through our own version of the Nile Perch, the Barramundi (Lates Calcarifer) but unlike the Nile Perch our naturally occuring Lates returns to the sea to spawn and isn't around all the time. Then the so called noxious species thrive.

There are not many allowable species from Malawi and Tanganyika either and not a single Vic or Vic basin species is on the allowable list

However, they are not on the noxious or "grey" list either meaning that technically, if a submission was made from people with the correct knowledge, like scientists as you say, these fish could be allowed in especially if the conservation angle was pushed.

As it is now it wouldn't matter if I went on a dive and collection personally. I wouldn't be able to get the fish in other than telling lies and taking risks. (which has been done) but I wouldn't do as the penalties are too high.

I work in a prison, no way do I want to live in one !!!

You have posted in this forum: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:29 am Post subject:

tr6 wrote (View Post): › Just hard to convince Ad to go to Victoria since the diving is much clearer in Malawi and Tanganyika.

The snail population has popped in Victoria and there is a nasty desease you can come in contact with from them or the polluted water while diving....Schistosomiasis

October is coming fast and I am not yet prepared....

So many things going on, I have not even began to get ready for our trip with Ad Konnings.