Baby ST making a comeback?

[classic-chassis]

^ that's the bottom line.
Karun says he bought an ST of a friend that knows a friend in Lopburi. He said is was from Cambodia, it cost 11,000BHT which is about 400 Dollars. I can't see them turning up in America or the UK for the same price. I've been looking at JJ market and seen (admitted by the vendor) hand picked 3 bar indos going for very high prices.

 

[stevenrox]

another thing i noticed is for true ST's the color is stable and same all around while indos have a "blotchy" color. for indos, the bars have deeper black in some parts or turns grey almost and the body has a un-even shade of gold and darkness while as ST's stay the same.

 

[El Sanchicho]

I asked this same question on another thread. This is what I have. Not very stable in the pic but I think they're just hand selected Indos. I'm happy with them regardless

 

[Viet Dragon]

What about this one.....ST or IT???????

 

[El Sanchicho]

What about this one.....ST or IT???????

Damb! What ever it is, its's a keeper!

 

[PennReels84]

What about this one.....ST or IT???????

to me this is a ST due to the tail stripe. every site you look at will tell u this. as far as the ones that are being sold as mekongs on here. i believe they are indos. stable 3 bar indos. people say wait till they get bigger to see. but that the tail stripes arent going to change from 7 to 6 bars!!
and where did u get the one??? is it an old pic?? is he for sale???

 

[blacktip]

I have seen pics of a lot of these in Asia as well as the ones offered for sale recently. I can say that a great many of them are truly ST. The differences between ST and IT are very subtle but once you see them side by side they are very noticeable. ST have a higher body and the contrast between the body color and.the stripes is crisper. They also look different when stressed. With IT the bars tend to fade and get light blotches. With ST the body darkens while the stripes remain dark.

 

[nomad]

Last year around this time +/- 3 months, baby indo's were flowing every where.

All these baby indo's should be around 5" now. I know this because I bought 25 baby indo's myself and grew them out.

Now, approximately 1 year later there are baby ST's all being the 5" that most indo should be from last year.

This makes me belive that the baby ST's that are flowing now happen to be hand selected baby indo's from last year.

This is just my observation and not fact by any means.

This makes alot of sense.

There's nothing wrong with paying more for 3 bars indos but calling them STs it's a stretch.

(I bought this IT at 6" 1.5 yrs ago, after initially the store owner was trying to sell it as an ST. pardon the dirty glass)

 

[classic-chassis]

With IT the bars tend to fade and get light blotches. With ST the body darkens while the stripes remain dark.

With that definition the above is IT then????

As I've stated before I'm no expert, but i have seen exactly what Bomber describe happen at JJ market Bangkok. I can point anyone to vendors where they can buy excellent 3 bar indos for high prices.
On the other hand i'm not convinced it's impossible to buy a real pulcher from Cambodia, or Vietnam through the right people.
What i am convinced of though is if or when those fish are available to buy in this part of the world, the USA and the UK won't see them because they'll get sold very quickly, for more money than most could find at the drop of a hat, simply by word of mouth. There are plenty of fish keepers here who have a lot of spare money and are just as keen to get a pulcher in their tank as any fish keeper anywhere.
If a vendor in the U.S is willing to pay 1000 dollars per fish it would be matched here no problems.
There are other markets that want them before the US or Europe as well, Japan for example, Singapore is another short step where people have a lot of money and are willing to spend.
I think if you see an "ST" for sale in the U.S for about 400$, you need to see it for what it is.

 

[jcardona1]

This makes alot of sense.

There's nothing wrong with paying more for 3 bars indos but calling them STs it's a stretch.

(I bought this IT at 6" 1.5 yrs ago, after initially the store owner was trying to sell it as an ST. pardon the dirty glass)

Nice little guy, but he's 100% IT. The middle bar is a dead giveaway. There's some though, that are very hard to ID. That's the point where you gotta decide if the asking price is worth it to you.