I'm a little confused.

[ihavefishwantmore]

Help me understand the whole Ortegai-Pebas-Morando thing. I am thinking of buying some f-1 A. Ortegai. Is this a legitimate classification? Is it different from cf. Ortegai pebas? And is pebas morando just a different collection location? I even read some speculation that Ortegai or Pepas may not be pure in the wild (because of human introduction of another apisto). Any clarification on this would be appreciated.

 

[Mike Wise]

OK, the long gruesome story. In the mid-1990s fish from the Río Ampiyacu were imported into the hobby. These imports often included a mix of similar-looking forms. This mixing of species, sadly led to hybrid specimens appearing in the hobby. Apistophiles eventually recognized 3 different species/forms: A. sp Papagai, A. sp. Pebas and A. sp. Putumayo. Depending on the exporter each were imported under 2 or more other names (see the List on Tom C's site for a list of other names). It eventually became known that Putumayo was being collected in the Río Algodon, Papagai only from the middle Río Ampiyacu, and Pebas only in the lower Ampiyacu around the town of Pebas at the mouth of the Ampiyacu. A. sp. Pebas - especially the very blue color morph called Pebas/Morado was very popular and more easily obtained than the even more colorful and harder to get Papagai. The Papagai could only be collected farther up the Ampiyacu and collecting it became more dangerous when cocaine growers/processors started working in the area.

In 2014 Oliviera & Kullander scientifically described A. ortegai based on specimens collected in pools near Pebas. The specimen that they used as the holotype turns out to be exactly like Papagai, while part of the paratypes turned out to be like Pebas, plus some with features that are mix of both forms. At the time, there were questions about what exactly constituted Oliviera & Kullander's A. orteagai. I believed that it included 2 separate species: A. sp. Papagai = A. orteagai (holotype form) and A. sp. Pebas = A. cf. orteagai Pebas (paratype form, in part) plus hybrids. This has since been verified using still unpublished DNA studies. I and other apistophiles believe that the collecting localities near Pebas, where the type specimens were collected, had been stocked with A. orteagai/Papagai by commercial collectors. This is not an uncommon practice. It makes it easier and cheaper to collect hard-to-get-to species.

So, what do we have? A. orteagai (= Papagai) and A. cf. orteagai (Pebas) (= Pebas) are 2 genetically (and visually) different species. Are there mixes/hybrids in the hobby? Yes. There have been since they and Putumayo were originally introduced. Are there pure specimens? I'm fairly sure that there are. This is where one needs to learn to differentiate the 2 species. Personally, I would not buy A. orteagai unless I could see the adult fish, if wild, or the parents if domestic offspring.

To add a "fly in the ointment", there is a good possibility that A. cf. orteagai (Pebas) was scientifically described and named about 150 years ago. The only specimen, the holotype, was only recently re-discovered - Geophagus amoenus, now reclassified as A. amoena. If this is verified then A. orteagai could very well be considered a junior synonym of A. amoena and no longer valid!! I just love taxonomy.

 

[ihavefishwantmore]

Thanks Mike, I hoped you would jump in on this. Here is a picture of the parents. What do you think?

 

[Mike Wise]

Looks like A. orteagai to me.

 

[ihavefishwantmore]

Looks like A. orteagai to me.

Thanks