ARK - Arizona Rivulin Keepers

The Scheel Letters, No. 45

As you know, I started a closer cooperation back in 1960 with the zoologist H. Stenholt Clausen after his return to Denmark. Both of us were deeply interested in the systematics of African Cyprinodonts. By joining our efforts and knowledge of these fish we probably could cover a larger field of research, so we set up a program for the cooperation. The first result of this was, on my part, that I had to get rid of all my South American Rivulins and the various forms of Nothobranchius in order to have sufficient tanks for the West African species.

The aim of our research is to try to bring the systematics of the Old World Rivulins into good order, starting first with the group of Rivulins known as Epiplatys. Besides this we would make some studies on Aphyosemion and Aplocheilus in order to be ready to deal with these fish when the study of Epiplatys is coming to an end.

Another result of this cooperation was that I had to change my methods of distribution of information on Cyprinodonts and also of live material from those fish. The distribution of these "letters" also was stopped because I found it impossible to combine my regards to H.S. Clausen with the regards to my readers. Very often a certain problem of interest both to aquarists and to zoologists will be ripe for publication to aquarists much earlier than for zoological publication. This is because aquarists tend to be less careful to prove their ideas, whereas the zoological publication needs a much closer argumentation. Also when such cooperation should be effective, there should be a full and free exchange of information and ideas between the zoologist and the aquarist. This means that the latter always will know about all findings made by the zoologist and then it would not be fair to him that the aquarist publishes his findings months or even years before he finds himself ready for publication of his work.

We are now trying to overcome this problem of publication of information on killies (Cyprinodonts) by the way that I am going to prepare articles dealing mostly with the "aquaristic" part of the problems on which we are working. Also by the way that I take from our joint work all information needed to cover the problems that I want to write about. As the information given in these articles is harvested from the joint work, H.S. Clausen will sign these articles also. This means that both authors are responsible for the proved and unproved information and ideas given in these articles, whereas I alone am responsible for the editorial work. I myself am not able to express myself in a good English (this is quite clear), however I am trying to express the findings and ideas as comprehensively as possible.

These articles, or provisional reports, of our joint work are intended to be published in the Aquarium Journal of San Francisco/USA, where my previous articles on West African Cyprinodonts have appeared so far. As usual, less detailed articles on the same themes will appear in the Akvariet of Sweden. The editors of these magazines will "translate" my drafts of these articles into a readable language. In order to inform people who do not subscribe to these magazines, the drafts of the articles also will appear in the Killie Letters in the future.

The original purpose of these informal letters has been to distribute information on killies and to act as a source of information for people who are preparing articles of their own on these subjects. However, as the drafts of articles prepared for Aquarium Journal and Akvariet are published in future issues of the Killie Letters, we request that people preparing articles to be published in the USA and Sweden do not use the Killie Letters as a source before these articles have been published by the aquarium magazines mentioned above. Because these letters have a private character and because people can not subscribe to them, we request that references to these letters are made as: "personal information from H.S. Clausen & J.J. Scheel" ("Briefliche Mitteilungen..."). As articles in American and Scandinavian aquarium magazines normally are not provided with a list of literature used by the author, I should like to add to the drafts a list of the most important references to be consulted by readers of the Killie Letters.

Besides the drafts of articles mentioned above, I like to put into these letters other information on killies that is gleaned from my own work or given to me by friends abroad. This information I hope will be used by the editor of Killie Notes of the AKA (American Killifish Association) and like societies.