[mikev]

Something does not add up with the Skull Creek strain of M.maccullochi we have in the US.

The fish shown by Tappin's page has white or transparent edges to the dorsal and anal fins,

; the fish offered by Aquagreen is the same. However, the fish I have (a large number of them) has red/orange rims.
My fish originates from Ken B, and his came from Eric Bodrock which _I think_ is the only source of the locale in the US. Bodrock's fish came years ago from Kevin Hosmer. A photo from Eric's auction shows the rims clearly:

Mine matches Eric's photo, naturally.

What is going on here?

Are there two Skull Creek strains?
Do we have a different strain (perhaps a PNG strain) mislabeled as Skull Creek?
Perhaps this comes down to a single mutation that appeared in the fish brought to the US?
Both Tappin and Aquagreen misidentified the strain (least likely -- they have different photos, and _I think_ Aquagreen people collect the fish personally)

Any info will be appreciated.

Specifically, anyone else here who keeps this strain: what color are the rims and does your fish come from Kevin Hosmer/Eric Bodrock too? I know that Taoyeah's are the same as mine... Lori is one other person who has them, could you tell us the situation on your end?

Incidentally, I think red rims is what makes the strain attractive... but I still would like to understand just what we have.

[Colin_T]

that photo by Eric looks a lot like the Cairns red variety we sometimes get. It was really commonly available about 10 years ago but isn't as common now. I would say you lot have another River system that got mislabelled somewhere along the lines
_________________
Kicked a black cat? Sounds more like ran over one, backed over it, hunted down its mother and did the same

[mikev]

Thanks, Colin, you rock as usual...

Do you have per chance a reliable photo of the Cairns variety?

There is a photo here,

but I don't know if this is accurate?. It looks similar to Eric's photo but not exactly the strain we have.... my fish has very little red in the tail and the stripes are less intense. Our strain is more "subdued" overall if this is the right word. In fact, I missed Lori's photos from our Gallery, compare the above with:






Now, it would be funny indeed if our "Skull Creek" are washed out corrupted version of "Cairns"....

Crap.

[killiguy]

I have kept fish collected from the Eubenangee swamp just below Cairns.(courtesy of Sticks)
These had very red fins but not a lot of marking on the anal and second dorsal fin and no yellow.
The picture you show Mikev doesnt look exactly like this strain but could easily be from another location in the area.
Could the US Skull Cks have been crossed with a Cairns fish along the line??

[Colin_T]

The top pic and the fish in the link to ausyfish are pretty much what we got as Cairns red macs. There is a picture in Gerald Allen’s book “Rainbowfishes in Nature and in the Aquarium”, pg 56, which shows the same fish.
The skull creeks have a few broken lines towards the front of the body, whereas the Cairns red have solid lines all the way along.

In the last pic you posted the bottom fish looks like a Skull cr, but the fish above it (in the same pic) looks more like the Cairns variety.

It is possible they are a bitsa, especially if they are throwing out fish that look similar to both
_________________
Kicked a black cat? Sounds more like ran over one, backed over it, hunted down its mother and did the same

[mikev]

They are a male and a female, and I refuse to think which is which (too hot to go to the fishroom to look at them ). Same in my tank. We certainly have a stable line, and there is one similarity to "real" Skull Creek - the black line in the anal and dorsal fins in one of the sexes, and this line is absent in Cairns.

[Colin_T]

if the last pic is of a male and a female, then I think you lot have a hybrid that throws female Cairns lookalikes, and male Skully lookalikes. sorry
_________________
Kicked a black cat? Sounds more like ran over one, backed over it, hunted down its mother and did the same

[taoyeah]

thats different betweeen our female and male fish.the male look the same as adrian's picture.except the white margins.we have red.

[Hans]

Here are my Skull Creeks. They originate from France.

Female


Two males with lots of yellow in their fins


Female and male

[mikev]

Thank you, Hans!

This is consistent with what we have here but not with Australia. It seems that the color on your animals is slightly stronger (going beyond your better photos), but individual lines may differ this much.

So do we now assume that the same mis-identification affected both the North American and European lines?

[taoyeah]

i remember northboy (Bob) had 3 strains of M.maccullochi.i ordered 10 white fins strain,but they were not from skull creek.too bad the shipment never happen.>_<

[rainbowfish]

[Spade]

What do you think are the following varieties:

M_maccullochi_1.jpg




M_maccullochi_2.jpg


You also need to stop calling any M. maccullochi as "Cairns" form. There hasn't been any "Cairns" form in the hobby since Adam was a boy. They are extinct! (It is assumed that the "Cairns" form come from the Barron River catchment)

Call you fish by Creek or River names!

Adrian

[mikev]

[Eric Bodrock]

Hey Folks,
I was asked to check out what was going on here on the forum. All I can offer is what I know about the Skull Creek macs I have. I got them from Kevin Hosmer, who brought 2 adult pair back from Australia just prior to 2004. I've checked old emails from Kevin dated August 4th, 2004 when he told me I would be getting some from him as soon as he got young. I think that Gary L. may have been with him on that Australian trip and may know more about them. I remember Kevin saying that he had a receipt from a shop, where the owner was breeding them, to prove that he bought them and didn't collect them. I'm trying to get in touch with Kevin to get more details but that may prove to be difficult! If I find out anything else, I'll let you all know.

Eric Bodrock, All Oddball Aquatics