Could someone tell me the different variants for the Lapradei? Is there any difference between them in terms of size, location, or is just purely pattern? Are the bulk of lapradei Nigerian or are they all Nigerian with variants? Just trying to get a better understanding of this species.
Koliba, Koloton, Faranah, and then the regular Nigerian?
Could you also tell me if this is one of the variants?
View attachment 1442693
View attachment 1442694
This one is a captive bred lap.
As for wild caught ones, generally there are 2 main variants for lapradei: Nigeria and Guinea.
For Guinea, you'll sometimes see lapradei caught from "tinkisso river", "milo river", "sankarani river", etc. Most of these rivers run through areas of Guinea like Faranah, Dabola. So you'll see lapradeis being labeled as "Guinea lap", "faranah lap", "tinkisso lap". In my opinion, they can all be classified as Guinean laps to make it more simple.
For Nigeria, we generally don't see too many diff labelings which is a lot less confusing but I've seen some labeled from "Benue river", "niger river", "Ughelli", and "Bayelsa".
There's also polypterus sp. koliba/koloton (forgot actually river names), which are technically undescribed species. But over the years, majority of hobbyist have accepted that they are also a variant of lapradei from Guinea area.
Generally, Nigerian, Guinean and sp. Koliba/koloton will look different from each other. But keep in mind, variations from the same catch location will vary too.
