A. juruensis? (Sold as, at least)

[Drayden Farci]

Can anyone offer their knowledge on what this looks like? If more pics are needed, let me know which angles and I'll try to capture some. These were sold as A. juruensis, and I'm having a difficult time determining the true identity. Someone said they were A. allpahuayo, but they don't appear to have a black chin.

Cheers!

 

[Mike Wise]

It's always hard to ID a species from just one photo, but I'm fairly certain that it is A. allpahuayo. The wavy abdominal stripes seem thinner (like on A. allpahuayo) than on A. juruensis. The same is true for the stripes on the caudal fin. A. allpahuayo has been sold commercially as 'A. juruensis' for the past 2 decades. It was mis-identified as such (by me!, among others) when it first appeared in the hobby. The true A. juruensis appears very rarely in the hobby - and is quite expensive. I saw it at an exporter in Iquitos once. It had been "imported" (smuggled) from Brazil with some other fish. There is also another allpahuayo/juruensis-like species that is said to be from the Rio Purus in Brazil.

 

[Drayden Farci]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the advice. I checked on them this morning when I came into the fish room, and it looks like the black chin was more prominent than previous days. Perhaps the live brine they were fed 10 minutes ago helped bring out some color! I always wait to judge a wild Apisto during feeding, since outside of that they can be rather drab depending on conditions and species.

I'll agree that it is an A. allpahuayo. Still a gorgeous fish (though I don't prefer the caca-types too much )