E
D
ITORIAL
Dear Readers,
For many years I have kept and bred the small bundles of energy in the blue-eye family (Pseudo-
mugilidae), and I’ve also been able to observe and collect some amazing wild specimens. I could
have taken the easy way out and written the feature articles myself, but instead I called upon
my old friend and companion Hans Herbert Boeck, who has worked with these attractive dwarf
cousins of the rainbowfishes for many years. On the following pages, he presents a detailed over-
view of the family and its husbandry and breeding.
However, I could not resist writing about my own experiences catching these fishes in their
natural habitat. (As you can see from the photo below, one can work up quite a sweat doing
this!) These animals have real addiction potential. Lovers of small fishes who have not yet had
the pleasure of keeping blue-eyes will surely be nudged toward setting up a small aquarium and
acquiring some of them.
At the other end of the spectrum, this issue contains a detailed article on a Central Ameri-
can cichlid. These very colorful cichlids of the “bull class” are more suitable for fish lovers with
large aquariums.
In the southern Pantanal of Brazil, there is a body of water that is not unlike a large aquari-
um. Many people have already reported on the lakes and rivers of Bonito and similar crystalline
waters in this region, but Lagoa Misteriosa is unknown to most aquarists. You may be the first
on your block to hear about this mysterious beauty.
Readers of the English-language AMAZONAS get an in-depth encounter with a true oddity
of aquatic nature—Marimo Balls, formed by the alga Aegagropila linnae. As authors Devin Biggs
and Steve Waldron point out, Marimo is more than a trendy curiosity from Japan; these orbs are
highly functional in the keeping of ornamental shrimps, and also an extraordinary element for
the creative aquascaper.
So sit back and relax and enjoy this issue while I change my shirt and start work on the next
one. For me, the end of one issue is the beginning of the next!Yours truly,
Hans-Georg EversAMAZONAS