German aquarist Fredrik Pipkorn has been keeping fish for almost 15 years and for much of that time has had a particular interest in species of the suborder Anabantoidei, or labyrinth fishes. Several years ago he met fellow hobbyist Sasha Baulan and the pair quickly discovered they shared the same passion. The two are especially interested in the accurate recreation of natural biotopes when keeping wild Anabantoids in aquaria, and subsequently decided to start visiting the countries in which their favourite fish can be found. Four years on they have several trips to Thailand and Borneo under their belts and are keeping some of the rare species collected on their travels in biotope-style set-ups based on personal observations.
Much like our own project, their website www.siamensis.de has a lot of growing to do but already contains some insightful images of Anabantoid natural habitats including such species as Trichogaster trichopterus , Betta imbellis , B. ibanorum , B. brownorum , Badis khwae , Channa gachua and C. striata. There are currently ten field reports plus aquatic videos and a gallery section. Everything is in German at time of writing but the site is well worth a visit for the images alone and don't forget, Google Translate is your friend. ;-)
Fredrik has kindly donated some images of Badis khwae for our species index and we hope to feature more of his work in the future. In the meantime please visit www.Siamensis.de to check out his site in full.
![Fredrik's [i]Badis khwae[/i] set-up is based on first-hand observation in the field.](/images/badis becken_formatt.jpg)
![Habitat of [i]Betta imbellis[/i] near Khao Lak, Phang Nga province, Thailand.](/images/Betta imbellis biotope.jpg)
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