Genera of Rainbowfish



Recent evidence suggests Cairnsichthys and Rhadinocentrus may be closer to Madagascan Bedotia and Rheocles then they are to other Australian rainbowfish.

Cairnsichthys
bitaeniatus
rhombosomoides
Cairnsichthys

Chilatherina
alleni axelrodi bleheri
bulolo campsii crassispinosa fasciata lorentzii pagwiensis pricei sentaniensis
Chilatherina

Melanotaenia
AUS CI_2017 MAC NIG SPL TRI
affinis ajamaruensis albimarginata ammeri angfa arfakensis arguni aruensis batanta bleheri boesemani duboulayi eachamensis ericrobertsi fluviatilis goldiei herbertaxelrodi irianjaya lacustris laticlavia papuae parkinsoni parva preacox sexlineata sp_Running_River synergos wilsoni wokamensis x_1004 x_exnig
Melanotaenia

M. australis group in Melanotaenia
M. maccullochi species group
M. splendida group, subspecies in Melanotaenia splendida
M. trifasciata group, locations of Melanotaenia trifasciata

Glossolepis
dorityi incisus
leggetti multisquamata wanamensis
Glossolepis

Iriatherina
werneri
Iriatherina

Pelangia
mbutaensis
Pelangia

Rhadinocentrus
ornatus
Rhadinocentrus

See also: the rainbowfish site


Burster Creek near Bamaga, tip of Cape York, Queensland, is a pretty typical habitat not just of Spotted blue-eyes, but also Thread-fin Rainbows, Iriatherina werneri, Black-banded Rainbows, Melanotaenia nigrans, the newly described Sahul Rainbow, M. sahulensis (similar to those from nearby Skull Creek), Chequered Rainbow, M. splendida inornata and Regal Rainbow, M. trifasciata. The submerged dense vegetation consists mainly of a small white-flowering water lily. At the end of this photo-trip with visiting Franz-Peter Müllenholz from Germany, I had lost 17kg in weight, but fear not, I found it all again since (darn it). Image F-P Müllenholz. - Gunther Schmida, 2021


Literature
Allen G. R. (1980) A Generic Classification of the Rainbowfishes (Family Melanotaeniidae). Records of the Western Australian Museum 8 (3): 449-490.

Lessons from the first dorsal fin in atheriniforms—A new mode of dorsal fin development and its phylogenetic implications

Allen G.R. & N.J. Cross (1982) Rainbowfishes of Australia and New Guinea. TFH Publications Inc., New Jersey. USA.

Allen G.R. (1989) Freshwater Fishes of Australia. TFH Publications, Neptune City, New Jersey. USA.

Allen G.R., S.H. Midgley and M. Allen (2002) Freshwater Fishes of Australia. Western Australian Museum, Perth.

Allen G.R. (1991) Field Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of New Guinea. Christensen Research Institute (Madang, Papua New Guinea), Publication 9: 1-268.

IUCN (2009) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.1. Downloaded on 04 September 2009.

Ivantsoff W., P. Unmack, B. Saeed and L.E.L.M. Crowley (1991) A red-finned blue-eye, a new species and genus of the family Pseudomugilidae from central-western Queensland. Fishes of Sahul 6(4): 277-282.

Lundberg J.G., M. Kottelat, G.R. Smith, M.L. J. Stiassny and A.C. Gill (2000) So Many Fishes, So Little Time: An Overview of Recent Ichthyological Discovery in Continental Waters. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 87(1): 26-62.

McGuigan K., D. Zhu, G.R. Allen and C. Moritz (2000) Phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of melanotaeniid fishes in Australia and New Guinea. Marine and Freshwater Research 52: 713-23.

Moritz C. (1994) Defining "Evolutionarily Significant Units" for conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9 :373-375.

Report on Biodiversity and Tropical Forests in Indonesia (2004) Prepared for USAID/Indonesia Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan No. 3-5 Jakarta 10110 Indonesia.

Saeed B., W. Ivantsoff and G. R. Allen (1989) Taxonomic revision of the family Pseudomugilidae (Order Atheriniformes). Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 40: 719-787.

Unmack P.J. (2001) Biogeography of Australian freshwater fishes. Journal of Biogeography, 28(9): 1053-1089.

Zhu D., B.G.M. Jamieson, A. Hugall and C. Moritz (1994) Sequence evolution and phylogenetic signal in control-region and cytochrome b sequences of rainbowfishes (Melanotaeniidae) in Molecular Biology and Evolution 11: 672-683.