Red the stickys...Only points to a size difference. Just wondering if there is a way to tell when they are young. I guessing I should just assume any smaller/ young dat I see is not a ST.
If you read the stickies you didn't do a good job since it points out a lot of differences not just size. Tail pattern being one, individual bars generally being thicker and a more squared, robust body which doesn't just mean size. Now I managed to get those three skimming one sticky for I'd say 10 whole seconds, so why you didn't get the same is a mystery to me.
From what I've seen so far having a ST over a IT doesn't warrant the price.
It's also been said here several times to you not to mention in the stickies you read that the price is due to their rarity. The fish is almost extinct in the wild, hasn't been bred in captivity and those available are usually older individuals who've been in a home aquaria for a long time already. So your saying you can't understand why an animal ST's which is nearly impossible to find and almost extinct is more expensive than IT's which are in greater supply in nature and in the hobby and is easier to find?
I will say that IT's also haven't bred in captivity and maybe going in the same direction as ST's in the near future, but that's not relevant to your post in the here and now. I just thought it was worth mentioning since ST's get a lot of limelight and more of us should appreciate IT's while they're still relatively easy to obtain.