Calling all festivum experts!

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Mythic Figment

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 27, 2012
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Florida
So I am planning an order from Wetspot and I saw they have wild Mesonauta festivus from Columbia. Did some digging and it would appear that festivus don't come from Columbia. Would the listed species be Mesonauta egregius? Thoughts?


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A picture is wirth a thousand words. Mesonauta species are very often mislabled and it is often diffacult to correctly ID young fish unless the exact collection point is known. I've run into the same issue with trying to figure if out if I had what I was supposed to have. Right now I have some WC M. acora. When they are stressed or in breeding dress the stripes can be counted although it's not always thet easy either. The acora seem to be be taller in relationship to length are very yellowish while the M. egregius where a litte more elongated and had more of bluish hue to the underside. You can see what I'm talking about in the pictures. Festavum are among my favorite fish. Once youe've kept several species it becomes easyer but unless I see them side by side I still scratch my head.

M. acora
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M. egregius
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I saw the title of this thread & I was going to tell the OP to PM you Aquanero. I've never been a big mesonauta fan, but those yellow M. Acora of yours always stuck with me.
 
Aquanero said:
A picture is wirth a thousand words. Mesonauta species are very often mislabled and it is often diffacult to correctly ID young fish unless the exact collection point is known. I've run into the same issue with trying to figure if out if I had what I was supposed to have. Right now I have some WC M. acora. When they are stressed or in breeding dress the stripes can be counted although it's not always thet easy either. The acora seem to be be taller in relationship to length are very yellowish while the M. egregius where a litte more elongated and had more of bluish hue to the underside. You can see what I'm talking about in the pictures. Festavum are among my favorite fish. Once youe've kept several species it becomes easyer but unless I see them side by side I still scratch my head.

M. acora
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M. egregius
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Click to expand...

So if the collection point is just "Columbia" and I can't get a picture, I am likely to end up with either egregius or acora?


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Mythic Figment said:
So if the collection point is just "Columbia" and I can't get a picture, I am likely to end up with either egregius or acora?


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Click to expand...

No, I'm just saying when young all the different species are diffacult to tell apart so if misslable it may not be so evadent. I was just demonstrating the differances and showing you an egregius so you can see what it is supposed to look like.

decoy50 said:
I saw the title of this thread & I was going to tell the OP to PM you Aquanero. I've never been a big mesonauta fan, but those yellow M. Acora of yours always stuck with me.
Click to expand...

Thanks they are a nice looking Festavum. I like all of them though..........
 
Aquanero said:
No, I'm just saying when young all the different species are diffacult to tell apart so if misslable it may not be so evadent. I was just demonstrating the differances and showing you an egregius so you can see what it is supposed to look like.
Click to expand...

Ah. Gotcha. Okay. Well I will see if I can get a picture. They are young (2"), so is that going to be too small to ID with photos?

And strictly speaking hypothetically, but if they are indeed from Columbia, that would make them egregius, right? Egregius were the only species I could find being listed as from Columbia.


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Mesonauta mirificus also has a range that includes Cloumbia there is some overlap of ranges. If they are advertivesd as M. egregius that's most likly what they are. We were just pointing out Mesonauta are often miss identified but if they were collected in the known range you should get what they say they are.
 
Even when I have the species guide right in front of me, they are hard to ID. I would agree they are probably M. egregius, as it comes from the area that is commonly collected while M. mirificus comes from the far side of the country while little to no collecting happens, and such fish would probably come out of Peru and listed as such.
 
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