Lightly Salted

March 25, 2010. According to the online Encyclopedia of Earth article “Biological diversity in the Caribbean Islands” , the Caribbean Islands are home to “more than 160 freshwater fish species, about 65 of which are endemic to one or a few islands, and many of these to just a single lake or springhead. As in other island hotspots, there are two distinct groups of freshwater fishes in the Caribbean: on smaller and younger islands, most fish are species that are widespread in marine waters but also enter freshwater to some degree, while on the larger and older islands of the Greater Antilles, there are several groups that occupy inland waters, including gars, killifishes, silversides and cichlids.”

March 23, 2010. Earlier today I stumbled across a post on one of the many online fishkeeping forums where an aquarist asked if there were any small freshwater fish from the Caribbean islands that would be suitable for a community aquarium. Only one person had replied, stating that only saltwater fish were found in the Caribbean. This, of course, is incorrect. In fact, one of the most popular species of aquarium fish is native to several of the islands (as well as mainland South America). If you haven’t already guessed, that fish is  Poecilia reticulata , also known as the guppy. It is probably the guppy’s adaptability and preference for alkaline environments (a trait common to most poeciliids) that has allowed it to disperse across the Caribean. Poeciliids, as members of the cyprinodonts, are believed to be a secondary freshwater fish family – in other words, their ancestors were originally marine and they adapted to colonize freshwater environments. This includes anothe...

March 20, 2010. This is my first post, and, as such, I must tout the best reference book for the brackish aquarist…period. If you haven’t perused (or perhaps purchased) a copy of Brackish-Water Fishes: An Aquarist’s Guide to Identification, Care & Husbandry (published by T.F.H. Publications, Inc., ISBN-13 9780793805648), then do so. Edited by Neale Monks, this volume is well-worth the purchase price, even if several of the fish covered in the volume are rarely (if ever) available. For the brackish aquarist, this book helps paint a more complete picture of the estuarine and mangrove environments; also included are chapters specifically on Etroplus maculatus (the Orange Chromide), the “freshwater” moray eels and other eel-like fish, and the various pufferfish species most suitable for brackish aquariums. If you want to get a feel for Neale Monks’ expertise, check out his website in the links section of this blog, or just click here . His is one of the first sites (and, of cou...