1. •AAM6 Content overview
   

2. • Cover Fish & Poster
       The Guppy – David Midgley,
       photos: Budi Lukman
   
   

3. • AAM News & Events
   
   

4. • Cool Products – Latest
       technology, gadgets and
       product releases
   
   

5. • Australian Natives
   

6. •  The Pacific Blue Eye
       (Pseudomugil signifer) –
       Adrian Tappin Freshwater
   
   

7. • Freshwater
   

8. •  Yucatán Mexico –
       Peter Baldwin
   

9. • Tropheus cichlids – Aline Sinclair
   

10. •  Freshwater Q&As –
        Amber Hinton &
        Anthony Ramsey
    

11. •  Silver Sharks – Robert Fenner
    
    

12. • Brackish Aquarium
    

13. •   Understanding brackish water
        fishes – Neale Monks
    

14. •  Cover fish – The Guppy
    

15. •  Wild Mollies – David Cooper
    

16. •  The Fish Vet – Dr. Richmond Loh
        White spot disease in Marine
        and Freshwater fish
    
    

17. • Marines
    

18. •  Marine Angel in the aquarium
        – David Midgley &
        Anthony Ramsey
    

19. •  Marine Q&As – Paul Talbot &
        Anthony Ramsey
    
    

20. • The Planted Aquarium
    

21. •  Glossostigma diandrum –
        Dave Wilson
    

22. •  Rotala wallichii
        – Simon Voorwinde
    
    

23. • Aqua Kids Club
        Games competitions puzzles
        and more! – Amber Hinton &
        Alex Cooney
    
    

24. • The Practical Aquarist
    

25. •  Rocks and Gravel in the
        aquarium – Andrea Watts &
        Anthony Ramsey
    

26. •  AAM Glossary
    

27. •  Club Directory
    

28. •  Classifieds
    

29. •  Store & Service Directory

This issue of AAM focuses mainly on brackish water fishes and their unusual half-way habitat that is neither fresh or saltwater. As a centrepiece we are pleased to welcome a new author to AAM: Dr. Neale Monks. Neale is a professional scientist and writer of aquarium literature. His most recent work includes

editing a comprehensive work on brackish water aquarium fishes and he shares some of his knowledge with us in this issue in an article on understanding brackish water fishes.

In addition to Neale, we welcome three further writers to Australian Aquarium Magazine. Peter Baldwin takes us travelling through the Yucatán Peninsula in search of cichlids, Simon

Voorwinde writes on that most majestic of aquarium plants Rotala, while Robert ‘Bob’ Fenner discusses the Silver shark.

On behalf of the AAM editorial team - welcome to all our new writers - I’m sure the readers will be as excited as I am by the talent we have on show in this issue. 

In addition, our regular contributers Adrian Tappin, Dr. Richmond Loh and Dave Wilson share their expertise in the areas of

native fish, fish disease and Australian native aquatic plants while Aline Sinclair gives us a quick guide to that most fickle of

cichlid genera, Tropheus.

In some interesting developments in fish conservation in Asia, the red arowana (Scleropages formosus) is becoming increasingly rare in the wild as smugglers cash in on the popularity of the species amongst the wealthy. Red arowana frequently fetch prices that range from 3000 to 25, 000 Australian dollars making smuggling an attractive, but destructive practice. There are global efforts afoot to combat the trade in endanged animals. In recent weeks, for example, an American national was imprisoned for trading in this CITES protected species over an internet auction site. Thankfully, the red arowana is the subject of successful captive breeding programmes in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

I implore readers of AAM to consider the alternatives (Australian saratoga species) before purchasing such an endangered fish.

David Midgley BSc. PhD.Enjoy.