In order to be a well rounded musician, no matter your specialty, it helps to be familiar with the nuances and techniques of other genres. Likewise, in order to bea better reef aquarist it helps to know a little something about related fields like freshwater aquariums, cichlids, planted tanks, horticulture and even succulents and cacti.
In that vein we will continue to feature some high level freshwater fish and aquarium action such as these fantastic domestic discus strains which drew all the Oohs and Aahs at Aquarama in Singapore earlier this summer. After more than three decades of intense line breeding, the discus producers have managed to create some mind bending specimens of discus, some of which go a little too far for our tastes, but fascinating nevertheless.
We’ve barely been scratching the surface of captive breeding and domesticating the marine clownfish, and it’s only in the last five to six years that actual mutations have been selected for and developed. A single clutch of Lightning Maroon Clownfish is great and all, but we’re going to need generations of gene-fixing to produce incredible fish with desirable new colors and patterns and a degree of fidelity to the physical shape of clownfish and other marine fish.
These discus hint at a possible future of marine fish which may put off some purists, but which will stimulate the hobby and a new generation of aquarists in the long run.
