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A precious species - ID

blueblue

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,876
Location
Hong Kong
Dear ALL,

I have recently found the following species, wildcaught from South America.
The price is very very high and it is claimed to be very precious.

Do you have any ideas about its true ID/name? Thanks.

P.S: It is not an apisto while on one hand, it probably lives together with some apistos in the natural habitat; on the other hand, i think fellows here probably know about it. Thanks.

http://www.aqugrass.com/phpBB2/files/08-02-07_1229_963.jpg

http://www.aqugrass.com/phpBB2/files/08-02-07_1230_187.jpg
 

ed seeley

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
577
Location
Nottingham, UK
No idea either I'm afraid. Was thinking they looked Hemigrammus rhodostomus shaped but that doesn't count for much - lots of things are!
Love the blue colouring.

Was there any info along with the fish?
 

blueblue

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,876
Location
Hong Kong
No idea either I'm afraid. Was thinking they looked Hemigrammus rhodostomus shaped but that doesn't count for much - lots of things are!
Love the blue colouring.

Was there any info along with the fish?

hmm, i just asked and learnt a few things:
1. The fish was imported to Hong Kong from Germany.
2. The male tends to be blue while the female tends to be red.
3. They come from South America, wildcaught.
4. Each pair is selling at a price of HK$6800 = US$872... i failed to get the
trading english name as the salesperson didn't know and he simply used a chinese name to call it.
 

Marc

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
46
Location
Bremen/Germany
Dear Jason,

in my humble opinion (a the low picture quality saves my head :wink: ) it is Nannostomus mortenthaleri. Please take a look here or here. Hmmm, possibly i'am wrong, the black stripe goes straight into the tailfin? That's more like N. beckfordi but that is no beckfordi. Maybe a new imported species? At the first glance, i will put them into Nannostomus and maybe it is a good idea to call them Nannostomus sp.

But according to the price, they are Nannostomus sp. "Pure Platinium". Phew, that is really a super extreme price according to German prices for tetras.

Kind regards
Marc

p.s.: No, not a mortenthaleri! :redface:
 

blueblue

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,876
Location
Hong Kong
Thanks much Marc. :)
Do you have a photo and any information
of Nannostomus sp. "Pure Platinium"? Thanks.
 

Crazygar

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
138
Location
Belle River Ontario
I'm going to have to agree on the Pencilfish classification. Though its a really really beautiful one! Definately something to keep my eyes out for! Thanks for those wonderful pics.

Gary
 

Chromedome

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
98
Okay, gang, here's a shocker for you. :eek:

The fish in those photos is a North American Minnow known as the Rainbow Shiner, Notropis chrosomus! Comes from the Gulf Coast of the United States. The males are exquisitely colored fish, and we have at least one club member locally who has pond bred them in the recent past, and another who went out and collected them with Charlie Grimes. I've had the fish myself.

I would imagine that they would still be considered precious/unusual in Europe or Asia. Now excuse me while I ROFLMAO. Nothing personal, Blue!
 

dheideman

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
12
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
Okay, gang, here's a shocker for you. :eek:

The fish in those photos is a North American Minnow known as the Rainbow Shiner, Notropis chrosomus! Comes from the Gulf Coast of the United States. The males are exquisitely colored fish, and we have at least one club member locally who has pond bred them in the recent past, and another who went out and collected them with Charlie Grimes. I've had the fish myself.

I would imagine that they would still be considered precious/unusual in Europe or Asia. Now excuse me while I ROFLMAO. Nothing personal, Blue!

Dang, I THOUGHT that looked like a shiner but I told myself it couldn't be.

Beautiful little fish, but wow on the price! The store I work at brings gets shiners (and dace) in every so often, through our wholesalers--who get most of their fish shipped from Florida or Asia--and we SELL them at like $6 USD retail.
 

blueblue

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,876
Location
Hong Kong
Dear Chromedome: Thanks much for the information. It's really very interesting. On one hand, do you know if there is any way for me to get hold of a few specimens (is there any store in the US which is willing to ship to me in Hong Kong?? ). It is a beautiful species. On the other hand, i wonder why it is exported at such a high price from Germany to Hong Kong.. is it very difficult to breed? :)




Okay, gang, here's a shocker for you. :eek:

The fish in those photos is a North American Minnow known as the Rainbow Shiner, Notropis chrosomus! Comes from the Gulf Coast of the United States. The males are exquisitely colored fish, and we have at least one club member locally who has pond bred them in the recent past, and another who went out and collected them with Charlie Grimes. I've had the fish myself.

I would imagine that they would still be considered precious/unusual in Europe or Asia. Now excuse me while I ROFLMAO. Nothing personal, Blue!
 

Chromedome

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
98
Well, it's not considered difficult to breed, as I know a couple of people who have done so. In this country it's a native species, and tends to get little attention; in fact, it isn't even sold in stores. It does have a somewhat limited range, but is not endangered or threatened, or even protected in some of the states where it occurs.

I do know several people who have the fish, but shipping them to Hong Kong could be a problem, I think. I suspect the high price is partially because it went through Germany, then to Hong Kong. Still seems pretty steep to me, though.
 

Mike Wise

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Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
You can always come to the US, buy a fishing license for a few dollars, and take a bunch of them back with you. Actually, it is illeagal to commecially collect most small fish like this one in the USA - but you can catch all you want to use as bait fish. Very strange. It is another fish like the Notropis lutrensis, which is sold in pet stores as the "Asian Fire Barb". It actually is native to the high plains streams in Colorado, Kansas & Oklahoma in the US.
 

tjudy

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Stoughton, WI
I have some clear images of that Notropus species, and I will try to load them up later today. I agree that they are very similar, but I would not be surprised if there is a SA tetra with a similar color pattern.
 

Mike Wise

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5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
According to my book "Colorado's Little Fishes", Notropis lutrensis is native to Colorado in the Arkansas River drainage. This fish is, of course, different from the species originally pictured, which comes from the Southeastern US. I was merely explaining how little respect native fish get from US hobbyists. They need exotic names just to sell them.

The reason for them being so expensive outside of the US is because it is illegal to commecially sell native non-food fish for the pet trade.
 

tjudy

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Stoughton, WI
Soem states, like Wisconsin for example. it is legal to sell native game fish that are farm raised in pet stores. Hoffer's in Milwaukee carries quite a few, including muskelunge, yellow perch and bass.
 

tjudy

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Stoughton, WI
Here are some image of that shiner.

EB_shiner_001.jpg


EB_shiner_002.jpg



EB_shiner_003.jpg
 

Chromedome

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
98
Well, I have some more colorful photos, but can't post them because they aren't mine. The really good ones are from Charlie Grimes, and some are from Jim Graham. The photos I have show the red body color of fish in breeding dress. I also have some slides of my own somewhere, but it will take a while to locate them. Fortunately for Ted, I'll be seeing him in a few weeks here in SW Michigan, so I can show him the Grimes pictures. Actually, he'll have a chance to photograph some of the really colored up fish at Jim Graham's house.

As for the probability that a South American Tetra would have the exact same color pattern as Rainbow Shiners on both male AND female, and just happen to be in one of the few groups that lack an adipose fin, strikes me as pretty thin. The most likely answer is usually the correct one, and the obvious answer was that the fish in those blurry pictures were N. chrosomus. The extreme pricing might also be related to the possibility that they may have intentionally mis-identified the fish in the first place.
 

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