PlanetCatfish.com

desperately looking for a pair of sturisoma festivum...can't find them anywhere...does anybody know where to find them?

To my knowledge, this fish has never been exported from Venezuela.
-Shane

If you want relevant help locating certain fish it would help those who might be able to help you if you disclosed your location.

There are many Sturisoma available and no real need to choose S. festivum.

As a matter of fact unless an Orinoco fish can be found in the Colombian side of the border you can forget it.

Chavez is not interested in trade with the West.

S. festivum is from the Maracaibo Basin. It is possible that it occurs on the Colombian side of the border in Maracaibo Basin tributaries such as the Catatumbo. That said, it realy is academic as there is no tropical fish collection anywhere near that area. The collection trade in Colombia is centered in Villavicencia (llanos fishes), Puerto Carreño (Orinoco) and Leticia (Amazon) with minor targeted collection (mostly Chaetostoma and Sturisoma) in the Magdalena.
The ban on the exportation of fauna from Venezuela predates Chavez by many years.
-Shane

hi all
a couple of years ago i bought a pair of sturasomatichthys magdalense from a local shop.at the same time i got 2 pairs of what i took to be festivums (they look exactly the same as the festivums on the cat-elog )the only sturasomatichthys on the cat-elog at the time were leightoni so i looked them up on the net .some pics looked like my fish some didnt .so it still looks like i dont know what i bought that day .keep up the good work chaps withany luck one day i will have the answer. by the way the guy at the shop told me the both fish came in the same shipment so if anyone has any ideas?
cheers flash

Hi Shane,
I knew that Venezuela was more restrictive about imports pre-Chavez than most SA countries. Just know that under his administration it will get worse.
I have Venezuelan friends who are aquarists and fish biologists down there and keep hearing horror stories about what he is doing.

by the way the guy at the shop told me the both fish came in the same shipment so if anyone has any ideas?

It all depends if your friend was direct importing (which very, very few retails shops do), buying from a transhipper, or buying from an importer. They may have been in the same shipment from an importer or transhipper, but so could have been Asian Danio, African tetras and Brazilian cichlids.
Most retail outfits buy from a regional importer that is importing from all over the world. Just because the animals came from the same importer does not mean they were captured together in the wild.
-Shane

I have Venezuelan friends who are aquarists and fish biologists down there and keep hearing horror stories about what he is doing.

Larry,
As you may know, I lived there 2000-2002. I was there for the coup and counter-coup. We had four presidents in four days (Chavez Friday, Carmona Saturday, Cabello Sunday, and Chavez again on Monday). I have strong feelings about the issue, but to keep it "fair" it should be pointed out that the Venezuelan restriction on fish exportation existed before Chavez even first tried to overthrow the government in the 1992 coup.
-Shane

I have seen plenty of pictures, even read threads refering to people breeding them in the U.S., as well as Europe, so why are they so difficult to find?

kodyman wrote:I have seen plenty of pictures, even read threads refering to people breeding them in the U.S., as well as Europe, so why are they so difficult to find?

The Sturisoma with long fin extensions that is commonly known as the Royal Twig Cat and that is fairly common in the hobby is thought to be Sturisoma festivum and labelled as such by most proactive traders and hobbyists, HOWEVER, it turns out that ID was a bigger leap of faith than some are comfortable in making. We me be seeing the name Sturisoma sp. aff. festivum a lot more in the future...

With Shane's help, I'm currently reviewing this issue and that's why Shane responds as he does. Sturisoma festivum and the fish you are seeking aren't the same thing in Shane's eyes, although they are, currently one and the same in the cat-elog.

Jools

The pictures in the Cat-elog are impressive and I would be more than happy to 'settle' for these guys...but I still can't locate them in the states...also, are these guys endangered? I have tank space to give, and would love the opportunity to breed these guys...chris

Not that it's much help to a "New York area", but both of my local favourite shops have had "long-fin-extension" Sturisoma spp. in stock for the last few weeks. Very tempted, but not enough tank-space...

--
Mats

Hi Shane,
My Venezuelan friend has contacts in the fish collecting business and was a Grad student of Dr. Donald Taphorn so he is just not only a great guy but pretty close to the Venezuelan fishes.

Incidental to other projects in pools that were running some studies on P. suttonorum, he had P. altum spawns in the pools. The captive breeding in aquariums is his present focus since coming to the USA.
It was of little significance down there. It was only after coming here he found that altums were the Holy Grail of breeding wild angels in captivity goes.

I just happen to be someone he discusses Venezuelan politics with although I have never been there. I only know what I read and what he tells me and what he tells me is usually sad about what is going on there.

Venezuela offers so much for aquarists if they could just work out something reasonable.

Regards,

I've been looking for these guys for two and a half years...it's getting frustrating...