Brachyplatystoma I.D.

[vincentwugwg]

So... Wes (fugupuff) imported a few B. flavicans from Suriname that just might be something else. Fugupuff got a hold of some good sized catfish a little over 2 months ago. The cats in question are about 18-20 inches and came shipped one fish per box. After waiting for what seemed like years, the cats finally arrived in my hands today! Thanks Wes... great packing as usual. The big surprise is... that for some reason, these B. flavicans don't appear to be dorado catfish. Something about their appearance is just off. The snouts and fins on these cats seem more Piraiba like than Dorado like. I spoke to Wes on the phone about this and he agrees that the catfish looks different. Before I start to sound like a fool, I would like some of the Catfish experts to help me out a little. Don't get me wrong here... I love these new cats, perhaps more so now that they might be something different. wednesday13 thebiggerthebetter
Here is a video of the cats in question.

 

[vincentwugwg]

And here is a video of the catfish minutes after they were released into the tank.

 

[rodger]

Looks dorado to me, but I'm not an expert

 

[wednesday13]

Great cats either way...id wager brachyplatystoma capapretum but im no pim expert. I dont think weve ever seen a flavicans this size before so that could be the issue but they do look pretty capa to me. Anxious to see what Viktor thinks... thebiggerthebetter

Congrats on the new pickups Vince! Ur cat game is mighty lately lol i like it.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Nice score!!

Dorado would not have the bicolor appearance. AFAIK, they always look metallic, more or less even color / iridescence, no such split in the middle at all which is most evident in the second video (first is vague in this regard).

Fila would still have some spots and sharper snout, looking at mine at ~20" (from Wes).

Capa would probably still have some faint spotting left; also it'd be utterly skittish. These look calm as a cucumber in the vids.

Looking at my vaillantii (~10", from Wes too), these strike me as vaillantii per a quick look but I need to find time to look much more closely.

I assume Wes is uncertain while I'd trust his opinion the most, of course. I'd like to know what's his hesitation. fugupuff

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

... Ur cat game is mighty lately lol i like it.

Is it me or all / most of the heavy hitters like Arapaimag and JohnPTC and Co are gone or are largely inactive?

So nice to see Vince attempt to start filling pretty unfillable shoes of our "founding fathers" "Thumbs up!"

 

[wednesday13]

Forgot about B. vallanti... u may win the prize on this i.d. Vik...nice! and agreed... nice to see someone step up into our "forefathers" shoes. its a tough spot to fill but id say Vince has taken the cake for sure lol...ur right in line behind him Vik. Im slowly trailing far far behind on my budget haha...

 

[vincentwugwg]

This is my (pic#1) B. Vallanti from Peru... somehow, it's body shape and head shape don't match up with the 2 new cats I just picked up. Pics #2-4 are of the new cats

View attachment cats #47 lau lau.jpg

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I agree this is a tough one for me. Here are my $0.02.

I'm yet to shoot my Laulao, aka vaillantii, but mine is only ~8"-10". It could be hard to compare to anyway. Plus mine has a small protrusion on its snout that should not be there.

The pics in PCF Cat-eLog #2,3,4,5,8,9 http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=1178 IMHO look more like your new fish and less like your Laulao. IDK why the snout on yours is so blunt. Can't say much for the body shape as a clear side shot (not at an angle) with fins spread is needed.

IDK why the front picture on PCF was chosen but it shows a blunter snout. Of course, the PCF pics might need a resorting but pictures like those of renowned ichthyologist Mark Sabaj should be trusted.

Moreover, the genus needs rework and also more species exist undescribed yet. Moreover, there are inter-Brachie hybrids, Wes seems to believe.

In general, in my untrained eye I see that Laulao's snout is a bit shorter than that of fila / capa.

With my patchy knowledge at present, Occam's razor wisdom tells me to forget about undescribed spp and hybrids (as we know ~nothing about these) and tentatively propose vaillantii... yet clearly for the lack of better knowledge.

It'd be interesting to see what PCF would say, if anything, to this riddle.

Finally, here is a shot from Primo Aquatics of their 18" alleged vaillantii, which may or may not be genuine vaillantii but it looks more like your new two cats:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Two links of high relevance for cross linking.

Vaillantii ID woes go on. Feel free to gnaw on these when you have a day to kill, Vince

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/id-this-catfish.673333/#post-7565844

collection of links here - whatever I came across and thought relevant - http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=38098&hilit=vaillantii