A. sp. Jurua Emerald

[blueblue]

I have a few pairs of the A. sp. Jurua Emerald;
all of them are tank-bred fish. For the wild fish,
I could only find the photos on some websites
in Japan... and I have never seen one in the market...

To some extent, i have some doubts on the identity
of this fish. Essentially, is it possible that this fish
is simply a mix (wild? tank?) of some existing
species such as A. Norberti?

 

[Mike Wise]

A. sp. Jurá Emerald, introduced to the hobby by Yamazaki et al. in 1997, is the same species as A. sp. Cruzeiro/Juruá/Goias Red-tail. This species is rare in the wild. It is just as rare in the hobby because little commercial collecting occurs in the area around Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil where it lives.

 

[blueblue]

Thanks Mike for the information... There is one big question mark in my mind:
This fish is quite popular among the apisto collectors and the selling price is also high (again high demand and low supply). So, from the commerical point of view, there is a strong incentive for merchants to try to explore that area and collect more fish (maybe there're some other interesting species)... but we do not observe it in practice. Why is it? Is it the regulation issue in Brazil which prohibits the export of it?

 

[mervin]

think one of the reasons is that location is rather inaccessible

 

[blueblue]

think one of the reasons is that location is rather inaccessible

Thanks Mervin, it's a good reason accounting for it... on the other hand,
do you think that this species could actually be a fake (i.e. an artificial creation)?

 

[mervin]

do you think that this species could actually be a fake (i.e. an artificial creation)?

hahahaha !!!
thats a good one !!!

 

[blueblue]

hahahaha !!!
thats a good one !!!

^.^ actually, if we take a look at the current form
of "A. Viejie" and "A. Hongsloi" in the market, they look so different from
the original species in the wild, you know what i mean...

 

[mervin]

^.^ actually, if we take a look at the current form
of "A. Viejie" and "A. Hongsloi" in the market, they look so different from
the original species in the wild, you know what i mean...

i know.....however i have seen the real wild Jura, therefore ready can't comment on this.

 

[blueblue]

i know.....however i have seen the real wild Jura, therefore ready can't comment on this.

Thanks Mervin. i see, and i have also read the photos of the "wild Jura"...
btw, what i mean is: the issue can be traced back to the origin - the exporter/collector in South America. Have you heard of
the story of the Bita. from Rio Tefe last fall? The price of wild bita. (Tefe) dropped a lot (over 60% of the old price), i.e. we could buy a pair of
them with a price of $US25-$US35!! (the original price from the same source should be at least US$100!!) Traders in Taiwan basically were reported to have big doubts on whether the fish really came from Rio Tefe in Brazil, especially when Brazil had already imposed restiction on exporting wild fish... some propositions included the fish were actually tank-bred, or they're NOT from Rio Tefe (while those bita. did exhibit the features of the species from Brazil!! And we all know that Bita. from Brazil are more expensive than the ones from Peru...)

 

[Mike Wise]

A. sp. Cruzeiro is a real species found in the wild. It is found with A. juruensis & A. moae (how common are either of these species?). The area was collected in the late 1990s and it seems that virtually all specimens that we now see of these species are domestic specimens from this & a few later importations. A. sp. Cruzeiro is not easy to breed (similar to A. elizabethae). The demand outstrips the supply, so the price stays high. As for A. bitaeniata from the Rio Tefé, it can be bred as easily as A. bitaeniata anywhere else. It is not common in the Tefé system, but domestic specimens are available (at least in Asia). The name indicates that the source of the gene pool is from the Tefé, not necessarily that the fish are wildcaught. The Tefé is a popular collecting site for Discus, so other fish are imported from there, too.

 

[blueblue]

Thanks Mike for the information.

Essentially, there are a huge number of A. sp. Cruzeiro (A. sp. Jurua Emerald) in Hong Kong as many breeders, including me, have successfully bred and got a large amount of it (many breeders have exported this fish from Hong Kong to other countries).
The concern we have is, we never see any trustworthy wild fish in the market!! For this fish, we only have two sources: One from Germany (tank-bred), one is local (also tank-bred)... while the two basically are quite similar (the local ones are basically F1, F2, etc of the fish from Germany), and the two seperate red dots in the caudal fin have gradually faded out and the ones in the market only have one red dot in adult fish!!

Breeders in Hong Kong have tried our best to find the wild fish but we failed!! For Bita. from Rio Tefe, i am refering to the wild-caught ones with the exporters in South America or Canada... Regarding the issue i mentioned,
essentially, there were big debates in Taiwan for quite a while (P.S.: Taiwan is one of the biggest trading countries in Asia for Apisto. Most of the wild-caught apisto in Hong Kong come from traders in either Taiwan or Germany.. with Taiwan occupying the major share of the market owing to its geographical proximity to Hong Kong)... the major concern was whether the bita. known as the "wild caught Bita. from Rio Tefe" were the authentic ones or not... as reflected by the abnormal price... people really had big doubts on it... anyhow, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to know the truth as we never really go to the river and catch the fish ourselves... ^.^

A. sp. Cruzeiro is a real species found in the wild. It is found with A. juruensis & A. moae (how common are either of these species?). The area was collected in the late 1990s and it seems that virtually all specimens that we now see of these species are domestic specimens from this & a few later importations. A. sp. Cruzeiro is not easy to breed (similar to A. elizabethae). The demand outstrips the supply, so the price stays high. As for A. bitaeniata from the Rio Tefé, it can be bred as easily as A. bitaeniata anywhere else. It is not common in the Tefé system, but domestic specimens are available (at least in Asia). The name indicates that the source of the gene pool is from the Tefé, not necessarily that the fish are wildcaught. The Tefé is a popular collecting site for Discus, so other fish are imported from there, too.