Robert Ellermann, September 2025

I first heard of what was then called Austrofundulus dolichopterus and now Terranatos dolichopterus in the pages of the old "Aquarium" magazine in 1970. Bob Goldstein published an article on what was called the Sabrefin Killie. It had been introduced to the AKA around 1967 and Bob had obtained his stock through Dr. Dick Haas of UCLA. The description of this fish was unbelievable as the photos below show. Apparently, it initially reproduced well and was around in the late 1960's but soon disappeared from US tanks. The Europeans kept it going and in 1973 the AKA imported large numbers from German hobbyists. I obtained some of these. They were already rather old, large, weak and colorless. Captive breeding had not served them well. They failed to reproduce.

Luckily, Dr. Jamie Thomerson had collected a new population on a recent trip to Venezuela in 1973 (pictured below in Leo Hoigne's photos). He gave me a peat with eggs but nothing hatched. He had also given them to the late, great killie breeder, Joe Anascavage and Joe succeeded in raising large numbers. Joe sent me breeding stock in 1974 and they were the most beautifully colored dolichopterus I've ever seen. The amount of red and blue coloring was spectacular.

At this time, I was finely blending my peat in a blender so it could be sifted through a net leaving just the larger eggs. The eggs were then put on peat in peat "sandwiches". These sandwiches were in a petri-dish with a layer of moist peat, a layer of nylon hosery, the eggs, another layer of hosery and another layer of moist peat. Eggs could be easily checked for development. I had fair success with 6 month incubation and warmth as with Gnatholebias.

This population is no longer in the hobby and I never knew its location. I'm sure it could be found in Thomerson's papers. Today, "dolies" have disappeared from the US hobby. If Venezuela is ever free and normal again maybe we can have them once more. It happened with Congo Nothobranchius lost to the hobby for decades due to politics until the last 10 years or so.