Nothobranchius furzeri was first discovered by Dr. W. Warne in the Gona Re Zhou Game Reserve in Southern Rhodesia (nowadays Zimbabwe). Gona Re Zhou is a "lowveld" area with the typical bush vegetation and scarce and erratic precipitations. During the rain season water is funnelled into ephemeral streams to flow downstream in the Mozambique plain. Some water remain however trapped into pans that represent the habitat of temporary habitat of Nothobranchius furzeri. Distribution of Nothobranchius furzeri is very patchy and it was detected in two specific pans named Sazale and Malugwe which form along the temporary river Guluene.
This harsh region is nowadays located in the wilderness area of the Gona Re Zhou National Park and is very seldom -if at all- visited by humans other than rangers and poachers.
Dr. W. Warne and R. Furzer collected some specimens in March 1968 and J.V.Ludbrook collected some more specimens in December 1968. These specimens were used as material for a formal species description by R.A. Jubb, a Southafrican researcher who pioneered the systematics of Nothobranchius, which was published in 1971 in the Journal of the American Killifish Association. The species is dedicated to Richard Furzer in recognition of his great efforts in distributing fish to U.S. hobbyists. In 1973 fish eggs were shipped from Rosario LaCorte in the U.S. to Dr. Walter Foersch in Munich who managed to obtain a healthy couple and it is believed that all current fish descend form this pair of fish. Nothobranchius furzeri holds ever since a legendary status among killifish hobbyists which has warranted its persistence in captivity despite its short lifespan and breeding difficulty. In 2002, Stefano Valdesalici received eggs from Marc Bellemans and passed some to Alessandro Cellerino which were the origin of the current laboratory strain. A second strain of Nothobranchius furzeri "Gona Re Zhou" is still maintained by Alexander Dorn in Halle, Germany. Up to date, the species was never re-colleted alive from Gona Re Zhou.
In Spring 1999 a group of killifish hobbyists (Wood et al.) collected a different color morph of Nothobranchius furzeri in the Mozambique plain close to the Limpopo River. Nothobranchius furzeri was collected in Southern Mozambique also by Cellerino, Terzibasi, Valdesalici and Valenzano (2004), Watters (2004), Hengstler (2005), Gomez (2006), Schartl et al. (2006), Cellerino, Hartmann, Reichwald and Terzibasi (2007), giving rise to several wild-derived isolates which are currently bred by hobbyists (see List of Isolates)
Here is the original description of Nothobranchius furzeri (kind permission of the American Killifsh Society).
last update of this page: June 21, 2007
NFIN - The Nothobranchius furzeri Information Network - www.nothobranchius.info