Another fresh look at a unique take on fish art!

As I told you in my last fishtoons blogpost, I was looking for new watermark and logo for my website www.playsofrays.com. I decided to mix my love for fishes and cartoons into one, and with the help of a friend and illustrator, Kunal Kundu, created four fishtoons. We looked at the first two fishtoons of  Fundulopanchax sjoestedti and Betta hendra in the last blogpost. Here are the rest.

Apistogramma luelingi: On my fish collection to Peru in 2014, I was mainly focusing on killifish, but at one place I collected this fish as well. It was an unexpected catch. I could not believe my eyes when I first looked at it. I had never seen an apisto with dorsal fins this big. Anyway, for some reason I could not bring them back with me to the U.S. I always missed them until the great Apistogramma speaker Mike Wise (who also lives in Denver) gave a talk on Apistos. There I found he has a variant of this species Apistogramma cf. luelingi “Cristal” (aka. Apistogramma cf. luelingi “Crystal”) He gifted me a juvenile trio to start with. They were about 0.75-1 inch at that time. After 6 months, now in July, the male is about 3 inches and the females are 2 inches in size. They are breeding almost every other weekend. I am running out of room to keep the fry. More on that later.

Their big dorsal fin seems like a crown on their head. I think they are very showy in appearance, but secretive as well. You can almost see the pride they take in their dorsal fin. They keep it high while charging at the mirror.

A wild Apistogramma luelingi male that I collected in Peru.

A flashy and stylish Apistogramma luelingi male winking

Etroplus canarensis: A beauty from Western Ghats in India. When I was planning my collection trip to India this year in March, I made sure to include a few spots where I would be able to see this amazing fish and photograph it. It is known to be a shy fish, but when when it is guarding a nest or fry it becomes very bold and doesn’t think twice before attacking. It’s a very intelligent fish which is hard to catch in wild. When you are sure that you have covered all the possible ways for it to sneak out of your net, it will find a spot and sneak out. That is exactly what I have tried to portray in this fishtoon. An Etroplus canarensis snapping its fingers saying, “Just got the idea!”

A group of Etroplus canarensis in the wild, eating algae growing on driftwood.

A nerdy-looking Etroplus canarensis snapping its fingers saying, “Got the idea!”

I hope you all liked the fishtoons 🙂

-Sumer