[helene schoubye]

That’s a clear indication for spec. Sentang. It’s the species/form with the least striking colours and the most traded form since 2009. It is traded with various names, from “deissneri” (of course, most are called “deissneri”), but also “bintan”, aff. bintan or cf. bintan, “blue line”, eben “spec. Sungai Bertam”. The latter is clearly defined (and was after having first found by Linke 2007 traded for several times), as is – of course – the first. The spec. blue line is often mistaken for it, and cofused with it, too, but there are clear distinctions: blue line is much more colourful, with striking blue colours and clear iridiscent lines in the male. The location is different, too (“Sungai Tuncal”), but it’s a Sumatra-species as nearly all licorice gouramis that are traded in the last three years (with very few exceptions). However, I myself have seen so-called “blue-lines” with very different colouring and structural shape; there is clearly a mixture made by the catchers already, with the exporters in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and – especially – Bangkok, at the latest. The importers in Europe and America receive that mixture and call it as the fish are called by their partners in Asia.
Since we don’t know the genetic differences we should keep all these forms apart. They are most clearly narrow relatives to bintan, maybe genetically identical, but probably already differentiated to an unknown extent.
In our last census (Spring 2012) which I just have received and will distribute still this week our experts Chr. Hinz and U. Küster were unable to clarify the replies concerning blue line and Sentang (and many deissneri, too), and have listed those two with the summarizing name “aff. bintan from Sumatra”, although the fish are phenomenologically separated. But they haven’t seen the fish but the replies of their owners, only. And there are sill some friends who think to have deissneri but that’s an error. Only one case has been left that really may refer to an import of that species living on Bangka island, and on that island there normally are no commercial catchers. Therefore, we have only one clear pair of deissneri left; I have seen it myself at Helene Schoubye’s tanks at the end of April; she gave it to Bernd Bussler, and now he is trying to propagate it. They regularly spawn, but after two days the eggs are gone. But they are not infected by funghi, and this means that they are most likely fertilized. So Bernd still hopes to solve the problem. Otherwise, Bernd and Christian will go to Bangka and try to find some.