A. guttata

[twilk@dcs-chico.com]

Just returned from my collecting trip to Venezuela.  Preliminary report:
We collected 4 species of Rivulus. R. gran sabana, R.deltaphilus, R. hartii,
R. lyrecauda (sp?)    

We collected wild Rams from a site south of the Orinoco Delta and further
east than earlier reports have indicated.These fish are stunningly beautiful
with long extensions of the first rays of the dorsal fin.  The fish were in
a shallow pond about 2 feet wide and 15 feet long and 6 to 10 inches deep.
Water hardness 90 ppm and pH 6.4.  They were in the same pond as a so far
unidentified apisto.

For me the highlight of the trip was the collection of A. guttata.  The
pictures in Aqualog and Linke-Staeck's book do not do this fish justice.
Unlike the rather bland tan fish pictured, the adult male is about 3 inches
long.  The head and belly regions are gold whereas the rest of the body is a
light violet in color.  The lateral stripe is made up of a consolidation of
black spots.  Liberally scattered over the body and head are black spots
similar to A. tucurui but larger and more distinct.  The dorsal and anal
extensions reach beyond the caudal fin.  The caudal is truncate and has
bright red streaks on the top and bottom edges like some other macmasteri
group fishes.
The fish were collected in a typical morichal.  That is a very blackwater
stream with white sand bottom.  The pH was 4.4  hardness of 10 ppm and a
temp. of 82 degrees.  The fish were in slow moving water at the edge of the
stream in overhanging vegetation.  Also caught in the same location were an
as yet unidentified nannacara.

I will report more info later.

Tom W.