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Petsmart find, being sold as chaetostoma thomsoni

. Petsmart sells all rubberlips as .

Cheers, Eric

Thanks Eric!

Still trying to get good pics of my other two Petsmart rubbermouths for better i.d.s

No problem. I've only seen 4 species of rubberlips at Petsmart, with maybe a 5th:

• L445
  or
  Chaetostoma joropo
  (both mis-ID'd and sold as
  Chaetostoma milesi
  , if any name is given at all).
• Chaetostoma formosae
  mixed with
  Chaetostoma dorsale
  (both mis-ID'd and sold as
  Chaetostoma thomsoni
  or even C. thomasi, which isn't a valid name [more than likely, it originated as a typographic misspelling of thomsoni]). Usually the Petsmart stores will have more of the C. formosae in the tank and fewer of the C. dorsale, but I've found a few stores with about a 50-50 ratio of each.
• Occasionally I'll see a few fish mixed in with the C. formosae & C. dorsale that appear to be ambiguously colored - the facial spots normally expected on C. formosae & C. dorsale are missing and the body is drab and uniform in color except the stress saddles. I suspect those are very stressed C. formosae or C. dorsale, but I can't rule out the possibility that they are a third species co-mingled. You can see pictures of one of these fish in an old thread of mine: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=43789#p298695

Here's the photo from that thread:
Of course, I did find my co-mingled with C. formosae & C. dorsale at an unrelated, local fish store, but I've never seen such fish at any Petsmart or Petco.

Cheers, Eric

Eric I posted my other two on a seperate thread.
I am sure the one is a Chaetostoma formosae, the other I tried (and tried, and tried!) to get a better pic of, but none were much better than the one I had posted on Facebook of him previously. I believe you thought he was a C. joropo but the spots on his head seem to be smaller (and actually form a line down the middle of his head) so I am leaning toward L445.

I got a good look at my Chaetostoma dorsale tonight (he is in a different tank than the other two), gosh he is BEAUTIFUL! I love his dark grey color and the light spots, he reminds me of a starry sky! ❤

jodilynn wrote: 29 Mar 2019, 04:41I believe you thought he was a C. joropo but the spots on his head seem to be smaller (and actually form a line down the middle of his head) so I am leaning toward L445.

Hi jodilynn,

I don't recall my impression before on Facebook, but the pics here in your new thread can easily be of L445. Keep in mind that some people think L445 is merely a color variant of joropo (others consider it a separate species).

Cheers, Eric