Wild long finned panduro not inka50 or any other

[Peter Lovett1]

I have just got a shipment in from Peru of about 300 fish.

Including

A. panduro
A. baenschi
A. sp."Maulbruter"
A. eremnopyge
A. sp."SHISHITA"

The panduro where the last to be taken out of there bags being least exciting of the fish i had got.(How wrong you can be.)which took quite sometime as each fish was individually packed. I when opened the first bag I did not really look at the bag only when the fish was in the aquarium did i suddenly notice that the fish did not look like a panduro its fins where to long with its pelvic fin reached almost to the back of the anal Fin. I thought originally that it was a baenschi, but on closer inspection it had the colour of a panduro with the extended fins of an baenschi. But dorsal fin may not be quite as tall as a baenschi but a lot taller than a panduro. Also in fright colouration it showed a verital black bar in the centre of the body.

So is there a population of long finned panduro or is it somthing else.

I will try and post a pic as soon as possible but they do need to settle in.

If nothing else they are stunning.

 

[mervin]

wow !!!

very interesting !!!

pictures !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kribs]

This fish could be Apistogramma Sp. Harlequin. Or could be a A. martini But i dont think A. martini has a dorsal like the one u mention.

 

[Peter Lovett1]

I know my fish and they are are not Sp. Harlequin or A. martini. The colouring is the same as a panduro with very long pelvic fins and a the dorsal fin is also taller than normal.

I will try to get some good shots this week end have been working very hard and have not got home before it has got dark.

I also got a box of what should have been Sp. maulbuter but are more than likely one of the other new fish from the nijsseni complex and i will also post pics of those to my guess is A. cf. payaminonis.

 

[Mike Wise]

A. panduro males can get very long ventral fins, like those you describe.

 

[fishboy20]

Look like A. panduro IME.

~Jeremy

 

[Peter Lovett1]

Okay sorry about the quaulity but they dont seem to like showing there fins.

This is a Young fish fish there are others that have even longer extensions. The question i was trying to ask was is there a population of panduro that has longer fins than normal and if so where do they come from.

 

[Mike Wise]

Older A. panduro males do develop slightly longer extensions on the hard dorsal spines than those of A. nijsseni. That is probably what you are seeing.

 

[Peter Lovett1]

I have kept panduro before and these do look somewhat different to the ones I had before. When you have a tank of 50 fish to look at and all of the males show longer fins than i have seen before. Have spent some time to day trying to get a good photo of them I also notise than some of the female ventral fin where red / very dark orange instead of yellow.

But basicaly you are telling me that the fish that I have are quite normal and would be considered tipical for Panduro.

 

[Mike Wise]

I may be wrong (I have been many times in the past & expect to be in the future), but in my opinion you have nicely developed specimens of A. panduro. I have seen photos of this species with lower dorsal spine membranes and long ventral fins and visa versa. Still they all fall into the 'normal range' for the species. It would be interesting to see females, however.

 

[Peter Lovett1]

No Mike i am not questioning your judgement. I am glad that there is someone on this list that knows as much as you and is willing to shear that knowledge with us.

Here is a photo of one the females with the unusual ventricle fins.

here a really nice looking female with more more normal colouring

and a nice male

 

[mervin]

very nice ones you have there !!!

cheers

 

[Mike Wise]

As a rule I don't use color (other than the black markings) in apisto identification. Colors vary too much within a species. Besides, there isn't a lot of difference between red and yellow pigmentation. Often something in the diet can change one to the other. Your females look like the A. panduro form with a flank stripe (instead of a flank blotch) to me.