Re: A. nijsenni -Reply

[William Vannerson <William_Vannerson@ama-assn.org>]

>>If we could solve that, it would be great.  If those fortunate few of us
who do collect were to establish a system, perhaps starting with the
already common use of terms like "Rio Mamore", and "Rio Tefe", and
building on that, It would be great, even if it only was maintained among
the growing network ok Apistophiles who are online and in groups like
the ACA and ASG.<<

There are killies in the hobby that do not adhere to the location and
collection code systems.  These and color morphs are referred to as 
"sport" strains and most serious killie keepers avoid them, with a few
exceptions.  There would still be a large number of "sports" available
commercially even If Apisto-philes were to adopt such a naming
convention.  However, it would still allow purest to maintain distinct
strains as well as maintain the value (i.e., price) of those fish with
known locations over those without.

FYI - killifish can have both a location and a collection code attached to
their name.  The location code refers to a geographic landmark to help
identify the collection site.  The collection code refers to the notes of the
collectors.

For example, there's a new species of Notho that was just collected last
year by Ruud Wildekamp, Brian Watters and Barry Cooper on May 31,
1997 from a locality on the Rufiji River floodplain in Tanzania.   The
provisional name assigned to this species is Nothobranchius sp. Kitonga
north TAN 97/9.   Kitonga refers to a geographic location near the
collection site while TAN 97/9 references the collectors's notes as being
the Tanzania trip, 1998 collection site #9.

It can be an intimidating system but has proven necessary with killies. 
There are cases where some fish from the same species that come from
different collecting sites have proven to be infertile.  Keeping the strains
pure help reduce this from being a problem in the hobby.  Meanwhile,
some folks are doing genetic research to better understand the
differences between species rather than relying solely upon physiology.

Bill Vannerson
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/william_vannerson