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This chap was sold as a "Pimelodeus Pictus", I live in spain where species marking in store is incredibly bad so I had doubts from the start. He's now over 4" from nose to the base of his tail and has about doubled in bodylength in the 4 months I've had him, any ideas as to what he may be? The shape of his head is what causes me to think he may be a hybrid.....

Thanks...

I don't think it's necessarily a hybrid - it is almost certainly not P. pictus, but there are several other similar species.

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Mats

There are a number of species of Pimelodus with small, dark markings similar to yours. I think P. fur is a close match, although I am finding it difficult to rule out P. ortmannni, P. coprophagus and P. paranaensis.

not a hybrid; it reminds me of Pimelodus clarias for some reason

hybrid Pims have odd headshapes; you still can see the spatula shaped head of the TSN or similar fish in there.

that is a really good question! i have one that i picked up about a year ago sold as a pictus but now it is 10" t.l. i have changed it's i.d. in my mind 5 or 6 times, but have come to strongly settle on p. maculatus. my other thoughts were p.pictus,p.albofaciatus p.clarias, among a few others. you might have to wait until it stops growing or do fin ray counts or something. it really looks like maculatus compared to a picture on pg. 561 of my no.2 baensch atlas.as far as hybridization, only god knows.keep it it is a cool fish anyway. good luck.

Silurus wrote:There are a number of species of Pimelodus with small, dark markings similar to yours. I think P. fur is a close match, although I am finding it difficult to rule out P. ortmannni, P. coprophagus and P. paranaensis.

Can't find any of those chaps in the cat-elog, am I just being a techno-twit?

We are missing several Pimelodus species, I'm afraid. I may add some of them tomorrow, but not sure if any pictures are available.

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Mats

This is what P. ortmanni looks like:

This is P. coprophagus from FishBase. It's restricted to the Lake Maracaibo drainage, so we can rule this one out as a candidate.

To me, it looks similar to a P. blochii, especially the body shape, and the pattern is alike but you guys would know better, of course...

there must be obvious reasons why blochii does not fit, right?

How much was it? Blochiis are cheap.