I can't say we know how much smaller Volta gcats are versus bigger cousins. Yellowcat and I used to read people stating, prognosing that Volta don't grow past 1 foot, which in my experience, if we are talking the same fish species, turned out only 50% true and who knows if our Voltas decide to grow more in the future, albeit they have been stuck at present sizes for years.
The genus is in limbo. Scientists can't agree who to call what. How much less would tangential professionals (vendors) and laymen know?! Vendors have not much time to chase exact and right IDs. Between laymen, it often comes down to aficionados and experts to help us ID our fish, even if tentatively. For instance, without the input from the science-paper-reading folks like Yellowcat on MFK and Birger on Planet Catfish, I'd be a LOT less confident in my knowledge of g-cat ID. Even as is, I often find myself unsure or helpless without their input.
No one knows every fish, even most fish, but many know some fish well. In our hobby, it is often a matter of finding these experts. "ID an expert before you ID a fish!" haha...
On a related issue, it's funny how in some older threads 10 non-experts would ID a fish one way and one expert (and the fact that s/he is an expert is known only to regulars, not newbies) would ID it right and an original poster would go with the majority of beginners, as if ID-ing is some kind of democratic process and a crowd can't be wrong, haha...
Written and printed word for many centuries belonged exclusively to experts, because it was expensive! Apart from yellow press. Nowadays, every half-wit like me can spew stuff freely and uninhibited for the whole world to read, while in the back of our genetic mind sits that dogma that written word is to be trusted, to be true, to have come from a mind that has thoroughly digested what it is saying.
I always strive to find and know experts and learn from them, ask good questions, push the experts themselves to learn, be grateful, and respect them. They are the gems and the cornerstones of each while worthy forum. They are the knowledge sharks. The rest, like me, are the remoras, the sojourning, benefitting scavengers of knowledge
Sorry about the $0.02 rant.
Yellowcat
