Results for “rare”

A stylish-looking but rare barb in the hobby and unfortunately little information is available regarding its captive care. Forum member Andy Rushworth has kept a lone individal and told us it was a perfect aquarium inhabitant in terms of behaviour and maintenance. He also mentioned that the fish he had looked exactly like the specimen in our images but that he has seen at least one batch of what appeared to be a different species imported under the same na...

B. burdigala is exceptionally rare in the hobby with many fishes traded or pictured as such being B. uberis or other congener. It's included in the Betta coccina group/complex of closely-related species within the genus. This assemblage mostly comprises small, red-coloured fishes with the exceptions of B. persephone and B. miniopinna which are darkish. Identifying some of the red ones correctly is not always easy as the patterning in them can be both similar and confusingly variable.

Within the nominal species grouping suggested by Grant (2007) almost all B. rostrata sold in the hobby are B. sp. 'upper Brahmaputra' with B. rostrata sensu stricto rarely, if ever, available. Trade names include 'Gangetic loach', 'twin-banded loach' and 'ladder loach'. The defining characters of the group are "Pattern consisiting of 8-10 black to dark brown body bars that exhibit pale and numerous spots in juveniles, and in adults the bars can anast...

Found in a number of habitat-types, though rarely in smaller tributaries, generally preferring deeper, flowing channels through which it travels for considerable distances at certain times of year. Like other large, migratory pimelodids these movements are typically associated with nutrient-rich, white water drainages rather than nutrient-poor black waters.

This species is very rare in the trade and is normally imported only as bycatch among shipments of other fishes. It can be told apart from its well-known congener B. dorsiocellata by a combination of characters as follows: lateral line complete (25-30 pored scales vs. 4-9); more scales in the lateral row (29-32 vs. 25-27); larger adult siz...

This rarely imported species makes an attractive addition to a community of larger peaceful fish. It is farmed commercially for food in its native countries....

Also known as the green lepturus, this is a stunning species when mature. Unfortunately, it is rarely seen for sale. Its pelagic nature means it is difficult to catch for export. As a result it can be quite expensive when it is available....

Rarely seen in the trade, as it is quite difficult to collect in nature. It retreats at great speed into deeper water at the first sign of threat. As with other members of its genus, it is a hunter, feeding mainly on smaller cichlids.

This is a great oddball species for the Tanganyikan community tank, although it is not as attractive as the closely related Aethiomastacembelus ellipsifer. It is rarely seen in the hobby. The species in the family Mastacembelidae are known as "spiny" eels because the dorsal rays are stiffened. Care must therefore be exercised when handling them to avoid injuries. Spiny eels also have no swim bladder, an adaptation to their benthic lifestyle....

Very rarely seen in the hobby, this species makes an interesting oddball addition to the Tanganyikan community tank. The species in the family Mastacembelidae are known as "spiny" eels because the dorsal rays are stiffened. Care must therefore be exercised when handling them to avoid injuries. Spiny eels also have no swim bladder, an adaptation to their benthic lifestyle.....

C. tamandua is quite a rare fish in the hobby, but is imported occasionally. It's not a good beginner's fish as it requires pristine soft, acidic water conditions, will generally not feed on standard foods and attains a very respectable adult size. It's also sensitive to many aquarium medications. It can sometimes be found as a contaminant among imports of the much more common Elephant Fish, Gnathonemus petersii. Unlike this species, C. tamandua has both upper and lower jaws exten...

A very cute little catfish, that unfortunately is rarely kept in ideal conditions. When it is maintained properly, it's a joy to watch as it feeds from close to the water surface, swimming frantically in the flow. It was reclassified, and placed in the genus Centromochlus in 1998.

This rarely seen Characin occasionally shows up in the trade, usually as a contaminant among shipments of more popular species. It's sometimes referred to as Asiphonichthys condei in older literature.

This fish belongs to a very distinctive genus of mochokid. There are almost 50 species of Chiloglanis described to science, but most are never imported and even the commoner species, such as this one, are seen only rarely. They are very difficult to identify down to species level, as many are very similar in looks. Some are strongly sexually dimorphic with the males having thickened or enlarged anal and caudal fins. Chiloglanis are also sometimes confused with the other 2 genera of African sucke...

This species' name has been widely misapplied in the aquarium trade and hobbyist literature, most often in reference to the Southeast Asian species C. ornata, but unlike its relative is in fact very rarely exported for ornamental purposes although its is fished and cultured for food in India. It can be told apart from C. ornata by possessing fe...

Known as the tambaqui in its native countries, this is the second largest species of scaled fish found in the Amazon basin. This alone should tell you much of what you need to know about its suitability as an aquarium inhabitant. In reality, it's debatable as to whether the species should be considered an aquarium subject at all. While pacu rarely reach their maximum size in captivity, they're still easily capable of growing to a couple of feet in length. The myth that fish will only g...

C. amandajanea is rare in the aquarium trade and appears to be variable in colour pattern to an extent, with some individuals posssessing relatively larger dark spots on the body, for example. Unfortunately diagnostic characters cannot be provided since we've been unable to obtain the type description, and little has been written about this species since it was published.

This species is not well known and rarely traded for the aquarium hobby. Unfortunately diagnostic characters cannot be provided since we’ve been unable to obtain the type description, and little has been written about this species since it was published. It looks very similar to several congeners, particularly C. acrensis and C. cruziensis.

This species is exceptionally rare in the aquarium hobby. Among congeners it is most similar to C. lacrimostigmata but can be distinguished by...

This species has a similar patterning to C. sterbai, but lacks the orange pectoral spines of that species. It's rare in the hobby....