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Rosen & Bailey first described this species in 1979. Prior to this only two species were known in the subgenus Pseudoxiphophorus, Heterandria Bimaculata & Jonesi. The expansion of a further six species came in 1979.

The new list was ammended with the introduction of, Anzuetoi,Attenuata,Cataractae,Dirempta,

The last five species come from very limited areas of Guatemala and so it is very unlikely that they will appear in the Aquarium trade.

In February “2002” I was in Belize on a fishing expedition with David McAllister, Brian Chittenden, Trevor Williams, Martin Mapes and Derek Lambert.

We were only catching Pseudoxiphophorus Bimaculata as we thought, and returning the small specimens. On further inspection I noticed that some of the smaller specimens were more colourful than the larger fishes.

I decided to bring a pair home. This turned out to be a gravid female Anzuetoi and a male Bimaculata. At the same site just off the Humming Bird Highway we also caught, Xiphophorus Helleri, Poecilia Orri and small Cichlids.

On reaching home the female had dropped 20 fry but only five were alive, the female also died the next day.

The five fry grew quickly and resulted in three Males & two Females. They sexed out at 3cms & where fully grown after seven months with the Males reaching 4.2cms & the females 6cms, it then came apparent that these fish were not Bimaculata. The clinching identification factor is the row of black comma shaped marks in the dorsal fin of both sexes.

The body shape is elongated with a pointed head. The body colour is olive brown with a lighter belly. Some short dark stripes sometimes appear on the flanks.

A spot on the caudal fin is common to the Sub-Genus. The fins are often tinged with yellow & frequently the outer edge of the dorsal fin has a band of colour. The dominant male in any group often loses the dark tail spot during displays to be replaced by an amber area.

I have only kept Anzuetoi in a species tank, with plants added to give cover for harassed Females & floating plants should there be any fry.

Temperature is not critical but should be between 20c to 27c, my fish do well at 23c.

As with lots of fish the adults will eat the fry & are voracious pursuers of small moving prey.

I have placed gravid females in breeding traps & have been rewarded with broods of 8 to 42 fry.

The fry at birth are about 7mm long & are able to take newly hatched Brine Shrimp. Good filtration & water changes along with a varied diet of quality flake & frozen & live food will result in rapid growth.

In my opinion this species, now establishing itself in Britain, is a first class fish to keep, provided you are prepared to devote a species tank to it.

Whilst only half the size of Ps. Bimaculata it is a better coloured species which will reward you with very good show fish if you devote time & patience to it's care & development.

The common name for this species is the Elegant Widow. The species was originally described by Rosen & Bailey in 1959, and named after Dr. gerald fairweather. It was first imported into the U.K by Ivan Dibble in 1979 via a German collection.

The body form of this species is typical of the genus, being laterally compressed and deep in the body. The Males gonopodium is spectacular often reaching beyond the caudal peduncle. Females exhibit a dark mottling around the genital opening. The body colour in both the sexes is vivid green with vertical black markings terminating in a vivid black strip through the eye.

Pelvic, Dorsal and Anal fins have vivid green colour with a black crescent inside. All other fins are clear.

On our collection trip to Belize in February 2002, we collected specimens at several locations, namely, San estavan; rio Hondo; Grace Davis Bank; Chanchi and Salt Creek.

I brought six fish from the Chanchi collection which upon sexing out produced one Female and five Males. From these fish I have built up a very impressive collection of the species.

Although it can be an ideal tank mate for similarly sized species, I have kept these fish in a species tank, which is well planted at one end with plenty of open swimming space. The only other inhabitants of the tank are Corydoras Habrosus.

Provided the water quality is reasonable this is not a difficult species, provided there are no sudden changes to the hardness or P.H.

Dietary requirements are flexible, from fresh, frozen to flake foods and anything which sinks to the base of the tank is normally consumed.

Once this species establishes a mixed age community there appears to be no predation on newly produced fry.

Fry are produced on a fairly regular four-week cycle and broods vary from about eight up to forty depending on the age of the adult female.

The young are about 5mm long at birth and grow steadily if somewhat slowly on a varied diet which should have a strong element of live food content such as Brine Shrimp.

Careful rearing will produce good quality fish which are fine show specimens, although patience is required as full growth may take up to ten to twelve months for show standard fish.

All in all this is a fine species which will reward the careful, patient aquarist with potential show winning specimens.

This has been a favourite little Barb of mine for many years. I was fortunate to be at Torwood lea, garden centre near stirling, Scotland in the late 80's when they had a very good fish section. There was a tank full of fish covered in white spot, they were about 2cms long & very thin. We knew what they were instantly by the size of the eye.

At first they would not sell them to us but after we had informed them we would quarantine them and any losses would be our responsibility.

They eventually sold them to us for 50p each, they did not know what they had, but we did.

Over the years we have had several groups of these barbs, the price can range from £2.99 up to £6 or so.

They are very adaptable to water conditions but tend to be timid in tanks with larger fish.

The body shape resembles the Black Ruby Barb but the colour is totally different.

Both sexes have two dark blotches, one between the gill cover & the dorsal the other between the dorsal & caudal fin.

The male carries the colour in his anal fin but the female has a clear anal fin.

The tank was a 16"x10" x10" or 400mm x 250mm x 250mm with a carpet of short 5cms plastic plants.

Temperature was kept at 78f and the G.H was approx 4gh. Slightly acid water of 6ph.

Over the next five days I fed them well on live feeding, blood worm and white worm.

We noticed one dominant male chasing the other three males back into the plants whilst rounding up the two females.

After another two days I removed all the adult fish as the dominant male was harassing the other males.

I removed the carpet of plastic plants leaving just a bare tank and the sponge filter.

After two days I was astounded to see minute slithers holding on to the sides of the tank.

These Barbs produce extremely small eggs & fry, as small as some Characins.

After two days of feeding on Liquifry the fry started to except newly hatched Brine Shrimp.

They were fed newly hatched Brine shrimp & Microworm with crushed flake over the next month to 6 weeks.

After this I introduced Grindle worm, Blood Worm & lots of live Daphnia & small Glassworm. Their growth was slow for the first two months, they then grew fast over the next 6 to 8 months, reaching mature adults size readily breeding after about a year.

This is an outstanding small barb that would suite any small fish set-up. It is very peaceful to other fish, but you sometimes see them squabbling with their own kind.