Anyone Managed to Successfully Preserve Colouration of Mahseers, Tor and Neolissochilus sp like Those from The Wild?

[thebiggerthebetter]

On soro: I'd say that I don't see it being different enough from other described species, which is the opposite of your statement that you can't see it similar to any described species. But I sincerely am not a mahseer ID expert whatsoever, not even at any significant amateur level.

I do try to look at your confused Thai golden mahseer (Douronensis, Stracheyi or Mahseer X) that you kept with the tigrinum catfishes every now and then just to try to come up with some strong pictorial backup of species it belongs to, but just can't. I think it'd be a good idea to have it in a darker environment with at least a fair bit of natural sunlight or synthetic (tanning) ones. I would think you are very likely to see their colours in very short time. If that's not too much trouble that is.

Thank you so much for these tries. I have only one of the "as sold" Thai gold mahseer left, which is about 18" now and lives in the 25,000 gal in the exact conditions you name - black rubber liner and a fair bit of natural light (but no UV light as the pavilion is covered by a white plastic (PE) film. This is the one in which I see no difference from the soro I got from Wes, except soro is bigger, roughly 24".

The other I bought as Tor douronensis from Tangled up in Cichlids and it is still small around 6"-7" and lives in a grow out 240 gal glass tank with sees much less light.

Neither one shows any colors that'd be easily described.

... but they have red tails. I have noticed yours are all yellow tails... I wonder what could that mean?

My two bigger putitora from Wes are about 2' now and live in the 25K and sport red tails, not bright red like RTC but definitely red. FWIW.

 

[Asian Exotics]

Thai gold mahseer left, which is about 18" now and lives in the 25,000 gal in the exact conditions you nam

So sorry for the long due reply. I was caught up with many things, some good and mostly bad. Hmmm, then I guess it is only fair that I should apologise that I was too quick to propose without real proper knowledge of the whole mahseer family especially those in South East Asia.

Anyway, the mahseer itch never died. The previous home of the mahseers are now home to an arowana community, but I am going to have an 9 x 5 x 3 feet (height) tank built at my office soon. That is destined for mahseers again. But lesson learnt well, no big ones, just the smaller ones (circa 20 inches) and preferably a school of them. Neolissochilus/Tor Stracheyi is still on top of my list....

Till then, Viktor.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

... I have only one of the "as sold" Thai gold mahseer left, which is about 18" now and lives in the 25,000 gal in the exact conditions you name - black rubber liner and a fair bit of natural light (but no UV light as the pavilion is covered by a white plastic (PE) film. This is the one in which I see no difference from the soro I got from Wes, except soro is bigger, roughly 24".

The other I bought as Tor douronensis from Tangled up in Cichlids and it is still small around 6"-7" and lives in a grow out 240 gal glass tank with sees much less light.

Neither one shows any colors that'd be easily described.

Having posted that post, I have been staring a lot more at the Thai gold and soro and I must somewhat reverse my statement and too apologize. Indeed these guys, which live in that semi-outdoor 25K and receive a LOT more filtered natural sunlight versus all our other tanks, sport some cool colors but to see them one must look at them when it is the lightest outside or under strong artificial light. These colors are reflective or iridescent, very pretty indeed, flashy, hues of green, blue, etc.

So I stand somewhat corrected and in better agreement with your prior assertion that these must be colorful when living in day / sunlight.

 

[Asian Exotics]

Having posted that post, I have been staring a lot more at the Thai gold and soro and I must somewhat reverse my statement and too apologize. Indeed these guys, which live in that semi-outdoor 25K and receive a LOT more filtered natural sunlight versus all our other tanks, sport some cool colors but to see them one must look at them when it is the lightest outside or under strong artificial light. These colors are reflective or iridescent, very pretty indeed, flashy, hues of green, blue, etc.

So I stand somewhat corrected and in better agreement with your prior assertion that these must be colorful when living in day / sunlight.

Well, I guess the mahseer puzzle will live for another day..... and many many more days after that until some really credible theory how these mahseers turn out to be how they are now. I suspect it is morphing, but without anything concrete, it doesn't mean anything. Am pretty sure it takes a lot of combined effort, work and cross referencing/checking to get any useful information. I just hope the damming projects in their home rivers will stop or at least come up with an alternative channel for these magnificent migrating fishes.

 

[tetroid]

Are you familiar with cave mahseer? They're thought to be descended from golden mahseer that became trapped in caves, where they reproduced for many generations. In the absence of sunlight, they gradually lost all pigmentation (and most of their eye function).