Sturisomatichthys panamense?!?

[mallemalle]

I bought a couple of small specimens about one and a half month ago. Today i found some fry in my tank. The parents are less than 4 inch body lenght. Sorry for the bad pictures.

[mallemalle]

Better picture of one of the parents

[bekateen]

Congratulations! Good for you. 4" long, about 10cm. Is that SL or TL?

Cheers, Eric

[mallemalle]

Not even 4 inch total lenght

[bekateen]

Might your fish be misidentified? Maybe you have a species smaller than

Sturisomatichthys panamensis

. For example,

Sturisomatichthys aureus

reaches only 15cm SL.

That said, some fish breed at a very small size if well cared for. I have rainbow cichlids that started breeding at 3cm. Unbelievable.

Cheers, Eric

[mallemalle]

It might be, I'm trying to get hold of the pictures of the parents of these ones.

[Bas Pels]

Quite a while ago I had a few Sturisomatichthys sp, of the Dutch genepool, and Sidguppy, who used to be active on this forum came along. Wow he said, those S panamensis are huge. Huge they were, around 20 cm (8 inches).

But, I did not believe them to be S panamensae, I always believed they just happened to look a lot like S panamensae.

The problem with these fish is, the genepool of them is quite divers, but regardless what they look like - they are the same hybrid

[bekateen]

The problem with these fish is, the genepool of them is quite divers, but regardless what they look like - they are the same hybrid

Hi @Bas Pels,

I am unclear on your intent. Are you saying that you believe these fish are interspecific hybrids?

Cheers, Eric

[Bas Pels]

I don't know about these fish, but unless the fishes were sold as wild caught, or decendents from wild caught ones, I would assume they descended from the genepool available in Norway.

I do know that the genepool available in the Netherlands is most likely a mixture of several species, but that is all I know. Norway could have their own genepool.

What I intended to say is - whether the fishes do look like S panamensae or not, that does only have a meaning in case one knows about the parents. If this is not known, please assume they just happen to look as they do.

[bekateen]

Thanks for the explanation. I understand now.

Cheers, Eric