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Sturisomatichthys leightoni?

Adults - Male 105mm SL

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/albu ... pic_id=685

Juvenile - 9 months

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/albu ... pic_id=686



Thanks
Niall

I would say so, but Shane's really the man on Sturisoma and closely related. There's a post under the title of "Which whiptail" about a 15 subjects down from the top in this forum, which has pictures of both Sturisoma aureum and S. leightoni.

--
Mats

odd

these 2 look like "run off the mill" Sturisoma's to me.

I lost track of names though.
for years fish like this in the trade were called 'Sturisoma panamense".
Then everyone started calling them "Sturisoma aureum", also for years; you can still buy "aureums" by the trucload in the LFs ranging from matchsticksized juvies to fully grown 8" adults with hairy sideburns.
then it got changed into "S festivum" because the true aureum turned out to be something out of Venezuela?
and now Sturisomatichthys.....

I once saw the real Sturisomatichthys in the trade next to a tank of "Common Sturi's" and the 'ichthys' were dark, short, snubnosed and had a vermiculated pattern (in between the large brown area's) compared to the 'bicolored' elongate and pointy nosed Sturi's.

confusing.

my 2 "sturi-whatchamacallits" have spawned again and strangely the eggs are clear, same color as Corydoras eggs. I swore last batch (but then I had 3 specimen; 1 died) the eggs were light brown with darker brown markings and bigger too.

Sturisoma x Sturisomatichthys can spawn?

sidguppy
I know how you feel - I've looked at tank after tank of whiptails trying to add to this pair - something is ususally not quite right though (usually size)

This pair is small <12cm SL and have been stuck at this size for the last 12 months - during which time they have spawned 17 times (30-70 eggs at a time).

I've not seen the marked difference in colouration between the sexes that is visible in the first picture in the tanks and images I've looked at either.

Regards
Niall

Niall,
Sorry I missed this post. Your fish are what we have typically called S. panamense in the hobby for some time. Now that I have said that, I believe that they are actually an undescribed sp. These fish are collected in the lower Rio Magdalena and exported via Bogota. Having seen Oliver's pics of S. panamense taken in Panama, it reaffirms my belief that the Magdalena fish is another sp. and that S. panamense is a gracile sp more closely related to S. aureum. Thus calling this robust sp something like S. sp cf panamense would be incorrect.
Until it is described, we should probably call it something like Sturisoma sp. "Rio Magdalena."
This will not be easy for the hobby as the name S. panamense has been in common use for a long time.
-Shane

Thanks Shane - can't help but feel that your knowledge of these and related fish would make a great PlanetCatfish article.