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Melanotaenia sikuensis (male) - photo© Laurent Pouyaud |
Kadarusman, Sudarto & Pouyaud, 2015
Siku Creek Rainbowfish
Species Summary
The body colour of Melanotaenia sikuensis is overall yellowish. The dorsal part of head and body yellowish, belly region yellowish. A continuous blue-violet midlateral line of 2-3 scale wide runs from the pectoral fins to the middle sections and 3-4 scales rows on the caudal section. The pectoral fins are translucent while the remaining fins are dark yellow. There is no marginal stripe on the dorsal and anal fins. A faint blue blotch extends from the pectoral fin base to the middle of the anal fin. The colours of the females have similar intensity. The species was named sikuensis, in reference to the collecting locality, Siku Creek.
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Melanotaenia sikuensis (female) - photo© Laurent Pouyaud |
Distribution & Habitat
Melanotaenia sikuensis were collected from Siku Creek. The collecting locality was a small creek of 5 metres in width, and flowing eastward into Cendrawasih Bay. The habitat consisted of a typical aquatic system in a karstic environment.
Remarks
In January 2013, Hans-Georg Evers together with Neil Woodward and Jeffrey Christian collected what is thought to be this species . They were collected in the Muturi River catchment near the village of Isim. The fish were found in several clear water creeks and lagoons in the region around the village. Live specimens were collected and distributed in the aquarium hobby as Melanotaenia sp. "Isim". They have also been known as Melanotaenia angfa "Isim". The largest specimen collected measured more than 12 cm in total length and was bright yellow with a jet-black longitudinal band. The colour of the aquarium specimens can be quite variable having either yellow or orange colouration.
Literature
Evers H.G. & J. Christian (2014) News from the Vogelkop Peninsula. AMAZONAS 3(6): 40-48 [English edition].
Nugraha M.F.I., Kadarusman, N. Hubert, J.C. Avarre, R.K. Hadiaty, J. Slembrouck, O. Carman, Sudarto, R. Ogistira and L. Pouyaud (2015) Eight new species of Rainbowfishes (Melanotaeniidae) from the Birds Head Region, West Papua, Indonesia. Cybium 39(2): 99-130.
Adrian R. Tappin
March, 2016
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