At this point it was already after 9:30pm and the open panel discussion was cancelled as there was just no time left. Some interesting bits from Day 2: About 500 fish species inhabit the Rio Xingu and approximately 25% of these are endemic to the area. Some Discus are collected at a depth of 20 metres. Instead of the waterfalls in the “big bend” separating different species, the type of rock may actually form the natural boundaries.
Day 3 Sunday started with a very complete talk about the genus Panaqolus. The genus includes many small species that used to 12 ∙ Aquarium World
Flash pleco Panaqolus albivermis, L204 a member of the proposed ‘white spotted pleco’ species group Photo: Darren Stevens
be included in the genus Panaque such as clown plecos, tiger plecos, and flash plecos, and is related to the genus Peckoltia. I found this talk quite exciting as Panaqolus are one of my personal favourites. The speaker proposed that the Panaqolus genus be split into the following groupings: Dwarf, Lyre tail, White Spotted, and the tigers. The next talk was potentially the most thought provoking - an obvious intention by the speaker. The talk mainly focused on misinformation in the hobby, often due to cross breeding by aquarists to produce desirable colour patterns and/or a lack of scientific information.