Below is a brief article reviewing what you are going to see on the Epiplatys Presentation that Charlie Nunziata produced as a Power Point presentation. The presentation was originally given at the 2010 AKA Convention. Charlie has since updated the presentation with additional text so it is more relevant to the viewer. After the “review” you’ll be able to click on the presentation. It may take a few minutes to load. If you do not have Power Point there is an additional link to install a free Power Point viewer.

Epiplatys Workshop CD by Charlie Nunziata - A Review

This CD contains a huge amount of information on the entire line of Epiplatys – I mean species that I had not even heard of. Charlie presents a series of maps of the areas of Africa where each species were found, and the maps contain a wealth of information, including:

A. An explanation of the three systems of Epiplatys Organizational Theories, i.e.,

1. The Species Group

2. The Faunal Group

3. The Ecological group

B. Some insight into some geological features contributed to the diversity:

1. The Dahomy gap

2. The Baole V

C. How about an explanation of diversity of the species based on Biogeography hypothesies that results in two related Clades . Yep, he explains that also.

D. Then he covers the contribution of the Savannah vs the Western Forest as relating to species diversity

E. Now, on to the Eastern Coastal Forest and the Congo Basin contribution to species diversity.

All of the above topics are well explained by using a combination of well marked-up maps complete with legends, accompanied with clear text and some great pictures of each of these species, and many of the photos were of the specific locations of each species. Just great to be able to see the subtle differences between these closely related individual species presented in high quality.

Many of the photographs were taken by Tony Terciera, J. P. Vandersmissen, and a host of others too numerous to mention. These are good quality photos that are very useful to help identify the differences in closely related species, e.g., there are photos of Pseudoepiplatys annulatus that contains the comment “Note the red coloration on the pectoral fin delineates the Monrovia form” – that’s how specific Charlie gets in explaining some things!

Of course, there is a section with good advice on the care and feeding of Epiplatys, maintenance information, mop vs natural setup, egg handling, and more.

Overall, this CD is not only informative and instructive, but is enjoyable to view.

Reviewed by Frank Carriglitto

NOTE – Please read this before you click to view the CD. When the PowerPoint show starts, to view the slide show, click on the tab in the top center of the screen that is labeled “view”. Next, click on “Slide Show” that is the 4^th item near the top on the left. Now you can advance the slides by just clicking with your mouse.

This is a long download. If your internet connection is normal telephone, you may just want to borrow the CD from the club. Contact Gis Gasior, (414 425-7754) to make arrangements.

If you cannot open the CD because you don’t have a viewer, . After the viewer is installed, then