The different shades of Apistogramma allpahuayo

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Hello,

Looking for information regarding each locality. All I know of are three different forms, but there are probably many more.

So far, I know of Rio Tigre, Blue, and Yellow. What other forms are out there and what does each look like? (looking for photographs). I don't know how to distinguish tigre, blue and yellow, so that comparison in its own would be useful.

Thanks,
Shane

 

[Mike Wise]

Römer's, the DATZ and Koslowski's books all show the yellow and blue color morphs of A. alpahuayo. I personally don't know of any population in the Rio Tigre. Like the Rio Aguaytia and Pucallpa claims this one isn't verified, at least I can't find any. A. alpahuayo has an interesting distribution. The type locality didn't have any specimens before 2000. They were only known from from the middle Rio Nanay near the village of Diamante Azul (hence one of its early commercial names, A. sp. Diamante). We now know that local collectors transplanted this species, among others, to locations nearer to Iquitos, to facilitate easier collecting.

 

[Bart Hazes]

... We now know that local collectors transplanted this species, among others, to locations nearer to Iquitos, to facilitate easier collecting.

Transplanted to aquaculture ponds or to streams out in the wild. The former is scary, the latter stupid scary.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Thats pretty terrible.

I received around 25 specimens under the popular (and very annoying) trade name of Apistogramma juruensis. Often times, the collectors spell it far from the correct manner.

Excited to see how they do in my aquariums.... doing daily water changes and selecting my stock before I sell/gift off the rest of the fish.

Shane

 

[Mike Wise]

These fish are relocated to natural ponds and streams. The type locality for A. allpahuayo is almost certainly one of these. I collected in this cocha (jungle pond) in 2008. The only apisto we caught was A. cinilabra. Of course, that doesn't mean that A. allpahuayo didn't exist there at the time, only that we didn't collect any. I was told that this cocha had been collected for many decades previously but A. allpahuayo was not collected there until about 10 years ago.

 

[Bart Hazes]

Thats pretty terrible.

I received around 25 specimens under the popular (and very annoying) trade name of Apistogramma juruensis. Often times, the collectors spell it far from the correct manner.

Excited to see how they do in my aquariums.... doing daily water changes and selecting my stock before I sell/gift off the rest of the fish.

Shane

Trade names are annoying if there is a well-established name, formal or informal, for the species. But A. juruensis is not a trade name and therefore truly misleading. Of course the incorrect name is always the one for the more rare and expensive species. So you need to do your homework but even then you will get tripped up now and then.

I just got a bag of 12 supposedly Tucanoichthys tucano. Colours somewhat resembled what I remembered but they were at least twice as large as this 'nano tetra' is supposed to be. Checking them out a bit more they turn out to be Hyphessobrycon loretoensis. A perfectly pretty fish, nicer than the somewhat similar black neon (H. herbertaxelrodi) and other close relatives. Problem is I wanted the small guys as dither fish for my apistos and these will be serious food competitors and potential fry snatchers.

 

[Shane]

Where did you receive loretoensis from? I thought they were Peruvian. My exporter has a bunch at the moment.

Weird how I have two accounts lol.

 

[Bart Hazes]

They are Peruvian, presumably from the Loreto district for the type material. I regularly see a 'wave of people' acquiring the same fish around the same time so it is probably just seasonal, with a batch of H. loretoensis coming into Iquitos and appearing on sellers lists around the world a few weeks later.

Since the tucanos are from Rio Vaupes it should have been clear these were not the real deal but I didn't know which exporter was used. This Peruvian exporter has been in the habit of 'strategically misnaming' fish (juruensis for allpahuayo etc) or just ship something else than ordered. I think/hope/expect that in future more shipments will come from other exporters including from Colombia who have access to the Rio Vaupes. If the tucanos are found in that upper Colombian part of the river and are not limited to the lower Brazilian Rio Uaupes part then I may still be able to get some in the future.