PlanetCatfish.com

Do you think that this fish:-
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=7390

And this fish:-

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm ... raphic.com

Are the same fish?[/list]

Hi AquaKat.

Although they look very similar, (most Hypostomus do unfortunately), I would be very surprised if they are the same species.

Hypostomus commersoni is found in the Paraná, La Plata and Uruguay River basins in the far south of Brazil as well as Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.

The expedition on the National Geographic article was in the Essequibo River in Guyana (at the far north of Latin America).

As the two locations are about 2500 miles apart, and there are lots of Hypostomus in between the two locations, its pretty unlikey.

Here is a map roughly showing the two locations.....
Number one is the fish in the article and number two is Hypostomus commersoni.




I hope this answers your question.





.

I doubt Hypostomus commersoni could be found in the Guyanas

Drat!
My boyfriend was trying to find out a while back (he has it as his wall paper on the computer)so as he could get one but could not find what it was, and I wanted to find one for him for christmas.

You very rarely see any Hypostomus in shops nowadays as the similar looking can be mass bred in the far east and as a result are much cheaper.

Also, Hypostomus grow fairly large and are usually pretty drab in colour.

This doesn't make them popular in the age of gaudy L numbers.

I would say that the fish in the picture is Hypostomus macushi.

It looks like one the scientists (Jon Armbruster) described this fish on that trip, and it looks very similar indeed.

Check these two references from fish base and the Armbruster website......

http://www.fishbase.org/Country/Country ... es=macushi

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/science_ ... hypos.html


The bad news is that you have an almost 0% chance of getting hold of one.

Maybe you could order one from a specialist retailer who has a Guyanan importer.

Hi!

I had ask Jon at the time of the article was publish and the fish picture is Hypostomus hemiurus

Cheers
Yann