Lateral (a) and dorsal (b) views of B. laticauda with a specimen of B. mysorensis (c) for comparison. © Bhoite et al. 2012

The Western Ghats mountain range in southern India is well-known as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, and in recent years a number of new freshwater fish species have been described from the region, most of which are endemic.

The latest of these is a new hill stream loach of the genus Balitora which represents the third representative of the grouping known from India, and its description has now been published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. Continue reading »

Live specimen photographed at Kerenge Island. © African Diving Ltd.

A new species of the piscivorous cichlid genus Lepidiolamprologus is described in the journal ‘Zootaxa’ this week. Continue reading »

We’re finally back from our holidays and to start the ball rolling again we’re offering you the opportunity to download the eighth edition of Dr. Richard van der Laan’s huge ‘Freshwater Fish list’. This 774 page book contains an alphabetically-arranged checklist to every freshwater fish species in the world, plus an overview of scientific names used in aquarium literature.

Continue reading »

Colin Dunlop discusses the use of dried leaf litter in the aquarium

The use of leaf litter in the aquarium is increasingly popular. © Ryan O’Donnell

For several years I have been using various species of dead leaves in my aquariums. It all started with a large brown leaf that I seen lying on the substrate of a dealer’s tank many years ago. Continue reading »