A. paucisquamis

[Im a Doughball]

While lamenting the loss of a spawn in another tank last night, I turned on the lights, and was pleasantly surprised to find these little guys.

Whole bunch of the little guys. Quite a bit smaller than what I would have expected.

 

[TCMontium]

Congratulations. I miss seeing such surprises.
By the way the female looks just like my mendezi female (I guess it is obviously the case since the two species are closely related). I wonder if there are any morphological differences between the females of the two species at all.

 

[Im a Doughball]

Thank you. Personally I find little resemblance to mendezi. If the differences in caudal pattern, or lack thereof, wasn't enough, the differences in the lateral sub band/bands should seal the deal.

 

[TCMontium]

Thank you. Personally I find little resemblance to mendezi. If the differences in caudal pattern, or lack thereof, wasn't enough, the differences in the lateral sub band/bands should seal the deal.

My female mendezi doesn’t have any patterns on the caudal fin as far as I can observe. Does the paucisquamis females have a pattern on the caudal fin? The video doesn’t really show the details. I am yet to see any drawings or descriptions about the differences on the lateral sub band(s) but there could very well be some differences, I didn’t research very hard. I haven’t seen a female paucisquamis in detail while she was showing dark, prominent band patterns (not the brooding patterns) in real life either. They looked very similar from videos and general photos on the internet, indistinguishable even for someone like me who doesn’t know the key differences.

 

[Im a Doughball]

Yes, puacisquamis females have a fine pattern/vertical banding in the caudal (just like the males, without the lyrate extensions or color), all of the female mendezi I have, have a very faint, mostly horizontal pattern/no pattern caudal (similar to M mendezi). The mendezi show multiple sub lateral bands, while the paucisquamis show only one sub lateral band (similar to bitaeniata). Having them both in the fishroom makes the differences fairly easy to spot, as google pictures leave quite a bit to be desired.