The "Maccullochi species group" in the rainbowfishes are a group of petite Melanotaenia fish with several dark stripes on the sides of the body, containing about eight species. The representative species of this family, Melanotaenia maccullochi Ogilby (1915), is thought to contain three types spread over different geographical ranges, while recent genetic molecular data show significant genetic differentiation gaps. Since the data on these three species support the distinction between them , two other new species have been described from the MacRoch Beauty and re-described the Macro Beauty.
What kind of Makroch beauty has been imported in the past?
The first is the red type, which is marked as Starcke creek in northeast Queensland, and the original "real" Macroch beauty described in the literature is distributed in northeast Queensland, with brown body stripes and red fins, so both morphological manifestations and geographical distribution locations coincide with the aforementioned species, that is, the red type that has been imported several times in the past is the Macroch beauty Buddha-figure.
The commonly known red type of MacRoch beauty is actually the earliest described Makroch beauty Buddha-figure
The red-type MacRoch beauty has a distinctly sexual type II, and the male has a wider fin, a distinct red body color and black longitudinal stripes
The second type, which has dark stripes on the gray body undertone, and a distinct black band on the edges of the dorsal and fins, is found in the north and east of the Cape York Peninsula in Australia, the Torres Strait and south-central New Guinea, and is known as Sahul Rainbowfish; M. sahulensis）。 This pattern is consistent with the yellow type of Markroch beauty that has been imported into China several times in the past and is labeled as coming from Skull Creek on the Jardie River, so the yellow type should be renamed "Skull Creek" in the future.
The first yellow-type MacRoch beauties imported into Taiwan should now be called Shahu Beauties
The later imported yellow type of MacRoch beauty, from the Skull Creek of the Jardie River, should currently be called Skull Creek
The gender difference between Shahu beauty is small, and the female fish is slightly lighter than the male, and the body shape is also more abundant
The third type is the Little Rainbowfish, found in the Tabletop Range of Litchfield National Park in Australia's Northern Territory; Melanotaenia wilsoni）。 They have the narrowest range and are small and have more prominent purple body axial bands; The most distinctive feature is that they usually have fewer vertebrae , lateral scales , operculum scales , short lateral caudal fin bars , and fin bars , and shorter proportions of maxilla and snout than the other two species. This type should not have been imported into Taiwan yet, and I look forward to seeing them in the future.
Further reading|https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4701.3.1
Cooperate | Huayang aquarium trade. JPWu's Ornamental Fish's treasure chest for a national treasure