Nov/Dec - last trivia contest for 2012

[bigguapote]

It's another episode of 'Caudals from the Crypt'.
Tails are fascinating. Most of the tails we see on ornamental fish species are known as 'homocercal'. In this type of tail, the upper and lower lobes of the caudal fin (tail) are symmetrical. A 'hetercercal' caudal fin is a distinct morphological feature seen in sharks and sturgeon, for example. These species display a larger lower lobe than upper lobe, hence an unsymmetrical 'heterocercal' caudal fin.

Please take a look at these twenty fish tails and see how many you may recognize well enough to identify the fish to which they belong. I am happy to receive simply the genus or common name of each fish as a correct answer. You may include species names if you like - I will not count corrent or incorrect species names for or against your total score.

The contest winner will receive $ 50.00 of free TUIC fish with no expiration for cashing in his/her rewards.
Moderators are invited to participate as well. If you've already won a contest in the 2012, please do participate as you like - but I'd like to give new winners the chance to get free fish.

As practiced in previous trivia contests, please do not post your answers directly on this thread. You don’t want to give away your correct answers to other participants!

Please either email me directly at bigguapote1@verizon.net or send me a private message with your answers.

I will close the window for responses on Friday December 14th at 3 AM EST. That’s midnight of the 13th for the left coasters living in PST.

Of course anyone is free to please share comments (but not answers) in subsequent posts.

I will post the winner’s response sometime on Friday the 14th. I will also post photos of the whole fish from which only the caudal fins were shown.

There are some rather obvious tail photos (to some aquarists) shown below and there are some that are definitely harder to identify in terms of our familiarity scale.
I've imported, kept, and/or bred each of the species featured in this trivia thread (a small hint), so none are outside the realm of 'ornamental aquarium fish'.

With no further ado, here they are:

T1



T2



T3



T4



T5



T6



T7



T8



T9



T10



T11



T12

I will offer extra credit on this one. If anyone gets even the correct Family name (that ends in -ae; ex: Cichlidae 'cichlids', Centrarchidae 'sunfish and bass', etc), then this will count for 2 correct caudal questions!


T13



T14



T15



T16



T17



T18



T19



T20

no, it's not another bass like that stumper from last installment

 

[bigguapote]

Congratulations are in order for Jaime (Modest Man). You are winner of this latest event and will receive 50.00 of free TUIC fish on your next order!
Check out his winning responses below.

1) I have no idea on this one
That's Hepsetus odoe. I was hoping that inclusion of the adipose fin may have been somewhat helpful.
2) Bala shark (Balantiocheilos melanopterus)
3) Banded leporinus (Leporinus fasciatus)
4) Placidochromis phenochilus
5) Cyphotilapia frontosa
6) Chaetobranchus flavescens? yep!
7) Green terror (Andinoacara rivulatus)
8) Amphilophus citrinellus
actually it's the tail of labiatus, but Amphilophus is absolutely the correct genus
9) Super red severum (Heros sp.)
10) Some sort of goby (Mogurnda mogurnda?)
It sure is a goby - Ophieliotris aporos 'snakehead gudgeon'
11) Chocolate cichlid (Hypselecara temporalis)
12) Anostomidae?
That's right. I never heard of Schizodon fasciatus until I was motivated to research what the heck this fish is that I imported from Suriname.
13) Clown loach (Chromobotia macracanthus)
14) Geophagus parnaibae
15) Buttekoferi (Tilapia buttekoferi)
16) Flagtail Prochilodus (Semaprochilodus insignis)
actually S. taeniurus, so you had it at Semaprochilodus
17) Caquetaia umbriferus 'Pamama green'
18) Caquetaia spectabilis
19) exCichlasoma atromaculatum (or maybe ornatum?)
ornatum it is!
20) Maybe some sort of sunfish? (Lepomis sp)
Excellent guess based on what you were given to preview. Sorry-this was a tough one for sure.
I tend to include one or two real zingers in these contests. It's a 'grey snapper' Lutjanus griseus.


So I'll repost tail photos and whole body shots below for anyone that would like to see.














































































































and here is the above male's mate



this fine looking wild pair of 'specs' have successfully spawned recently.
In fact, I call their fry the 'storm babies' because the eggs were laid the night before Sandy hit us.
Thankfully those eggs hatched and the babies are coming along exceedingly well. I hope to have them ready to market in about another month.














And there you have it. Interestingly, most of the fish featured in this month's contest reside in one of my home tanks; a 220 gallon aquarium.
One day soon I will take some tank photos of that set up to share. The inhabitants from this tank are incredibly varied. The result, I believe, is a highly eclectic mix of species that do quite well together (at least for the being).

Thanks again to everyone that stopped to look at this thread as well as the participants who pm'd and emailed replies.

 

[Modest_Man]

Thanks Jeff. I spent quite a bit of time scouring your site and photos looking for these species.

I really had no idea on Chaetobranchus flavescens, that was a pretty lucky guess!

I knew I had to get #3 and #12 correct as my former ichthyology professor is the world's leading expert on Anastomid fishes...he'd be very upset if I couldn't spot a fish from Anostomidae.

#1 was a bugger for me. I knew I should have known it and was searching and searching and finally just gave up.

 

[bigguapote]

Very happy to post your winning guesses Jaime.

I received fewer entries and see less participation on this thread than previous contests.

I want to make these contests accessible to all viewers, so I am totally open for your suggestions.

Are you tired of seeing tails?
Were too many too hard to tell to whom they belong?

I've included trivia from subjects such as music, catfish, cats, dogs, geography, motorcycles, photos from around the world, literature, food, drinks, and plant ID.

I am totally open to any suggestions that readers may have as well.
If I have to research a subject to come up with reasonable questions to ask of the readers, then so be it.
This is one old dog that enjoys learning new tricks/material

Thanks again everyone.
jeff

 

[Modest_Man]

What if the questions were about some of the fish that are on your current stock list, where participants would then have a sort of pool of answers to choose the correct ones from? (It might also get people to look over your stock list?)

I like sleuthing and trying to figure things out, but I'm a little odd in that respect.