Wild Apisto ID

[rafael]

The fish was collected in Carabobo, state of Valencia, Venezuela:

(right).

To my it remembers much the A. sp. "Maulbrüter", but... in Venezuela is imposible, certain?

Thanks for your opinions.

Rafael.

 

[Mike Wise]

First, none of the 23 states & 1 federal dependency is named Valencia. The city of Valencia (between Caracas & the Orinoco delta) is the capital of the state of Carabobo, in northern Venezuela. Are you sure the fish were collected there?

Now I will try to identify your fish, which seem to come from at least 2 different parts of Venezuela. Picture 1 shows male A. steindachneri from the Atlantic coastal plains of eastern Venezuela, Guyana, & western Surinam. Picture 2 shows 4 fish. The left fish cannot be identified. The large fish is A. steindachneri. The smaller fish appear to be a pair of A. inornata, a pertensis-group species that comes from the northern part of the Orinoco. Picture 3 shows 2 males of a hongsloi-compex (macmasteri-group) species, possibly the A. cf. hongsloi Capanaparo form from the northern part of the Orinoco.

 

[rafael]

Thank you very much Mike.

Rafael.

 

[Flair]

First, none of the 23 states & 1 federal dependency is named Valencia. The city of Valencia (between Caracas & the Orinoco delta) is the capital of the state of Carabobo, in northern Venezuela. Are you sure the fish were collected there?

Now I will try to identify your fish, which seem to come from at least 2 different parts of Venezuela. Picture 1 shows male A. steindachneri from the Atlantic coastal plains of eastern Venezuela, Guyana, & western Surinam. Picture 2 shows 4 fish. The left fish cannot be identified. The large fish is A. steindachneri. The smaller fish appear to be a pair of A. inornata, a pertensis-group species that comes from the northern part of the Orinoco. Picture 3 shows 2 males of a hongsloi-compex (macmasteri-group) species, possibly the A. cf. hongsloi Capanaparo form from the northern part of the Orinoco.

Sorry Mike...
but I think the 1 & 2 pic look like should be Apisto. sp. Breitbinden, not A. steindachneri...isn't it ?

 

[Mike Wise]

Maybe, but I doubt it. To be absolutely certain I would need to see photos of this fish showing more black markings. A. sp. Breitbinden/Broad-banded was named for the uniformly broad cheek stripe on the gill cover. I know that it is hard to see, but the fish appear to have a cheek stripe that narrows toward the outer edge. A. sp. Breitbinden has only a slightly extended anal fin tip (typical of all brevis-group forms). These fish have a moderately extended tip on the anal fin. Any Breitbind with an anal tip this long would be very old and have greatly extended dorsal fin lappets. Finally the lateral spot is too large - and too distinct compared with the lateral band - to be A. sp. Breitbinden in my opinion.