Pelvicachromis humilis - Which form??

[ste12000]

These fish are wild caught and were imported with P.rubrolabiatus, in the shops tanks the two species were mixed together, we cannot work out if they are from the same collecting locality and were shipped as one species(the shop did not know they had Humillis and Rubrolabiatus) or were simply two different shipments that were collected differently and then mixed at the shop??

Chances are its from Guinea the same as the Rubrolabiatus they were mixed in with? does any body have any ideas as to what location these fish should be labeled??

 

[aquaticclarity]

They look a lot like my P. humilus "Guinea Red" which were imported as iberia Red...no one is collecting/exporting out of Liberia right now though and the fish lack the black markings of the Liberia humilus.

The Guinea Red's came in at the same time as some rubrolabiatus and some signatus if my memory serves me right.

Jeff

 

[ste12000]

Thanks Jeff, i knew they were not 'Liberian reds'.. Im clued up on the different forms of Taeniatus but not the Humilis.
These are the first humilis i have owned and i am looking forward to getting them in a large breeding tank pretty soon..

 

[tjudy]

Guinea is becoming a bit of a problem. The collectors there are the only source for P. humilis, P. roloffi, P. rubrolabiatus, P. signatus and P. sp. 'Blue fin', but there is some concern that the collectors are A) not very careful about preserving collection locations separately, and B) using ne names to identify known forms because they have keyed in on our desire for new fish.

A good example is the currently avialable P. humilis 'Killi River'. There is no Killi River, for any river with a derivation of that name in Guinea. I have a lot of good images of that fish in many different color patterns, and comparing them with ANton Lamboj's MANY MANY images of many collection locations of P, humilis we decided that the type is most likely P. humilis 'Kislissi'. In fact, his pics and mine were basically identical, and it is a pretty distinct type with the males having incomplete vertical bars and the females showing vertical bars when displaying.

So... it does not surprise me that P. humilis came in mixed with P. rubrolabiatus. Based upon collection location the P. humilis is likely from the Kolente Forest region (where the P. rubrolabiatus are from); but that is not set in stone, because the exporter could very well have put whatever P. humilis he had sitting around in the box to fill it out.

I agree with Jeff's assessment that it looks like the rather plain-Jane variety being passed off (incorrectly) and Liberia Red or Guinea Red. The latter is collected in the same vicinity as the P. rubrolabiatus. I would like to see images of the fish really lit up.

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi all,

It was myself that found these fish and alerted Ste to their presence in the UK, a couple of trips later and we both had a few pairs each.

Some background:

Discussions with staff identified that the fish were wild caught and had been shipped directly from Guinea, they also thought there were 2 species present in the shipment (but that it was limited to only one of the tanks, not both as it turns out).

The aquatic outlet (a well respected outlet in the UK) had 2 tanks set aside with these Pelvicachromis, 1 tank labelled as Pelvicachromis humilis 'Dinkaya', the other as Pelvicachromis humilis 'Liberia Red'.

The male and female P. humilis came out of the 'Dinkaya' tank, the female P. rubrolabiatus also came out of the 'Dinkaya' tank.

The male P. rubrolabiatus came out of the 'Liberia Red' tank.

The male P. humilis in the 'Liberia Red' tank were no where near as colourful as the 'Dinkaya' tank males.

I'll also try and get some photographs of my pairs.

Andrew

 

[tjudy]

That would be consistent with what we have seen imported over here to the USA. I think that the fish they are calling 'Liberia Red' is collected in the same region as P. rubrolabiatus. Definitely not from Liberia though.

 

[a.d.wood]

A few images of my pairs.

P. humilis male:

P. humilis female (sub dominant, there's another (larger) dominant female in with them):

P. rubrolabiatus male:

P. rubrolabiatus female, same female in both images:

Andrew

 

[Drammy]

Stunning fish!