For the past couple months, the polypterus section has gotten a lot of new members, which is great! Its always great to bring in new poly keepers. With the insurgence on new poly keepers, I have been seeing more and more emphasis put on the catch locations of the different species.
I just wanted to take the time to give everyone something to think about it and perhaps lessen the emphasis we, as poly keepers, are putting into these differences considering how incredibly close, for instance, all the variation of Endlicheri that have been showing up lately.
Here is a map to help illustrate how close these catch locations actually are together.
As you can see, Dabola, Tikinsso, and Faranah are all extremely close together. Guinea, for reference, is just slightly larger than the state of florida. So, its probably safe to say all of these catch locations are within 100-200 miles of each other, if not closer.
Volta is the exception in this case, perhaps why Voltas do, in fact, have a more distinct look to them.
In the states, we dont distinguish between say, a largemouth bass caught in Maryland vs Virginia (which is a relatable distance in this case). So just some food for thought.
With that said, I obviously don't know the exact locations where our polypterus are being caught or how isolated they actually are from another to form physical differences and traits. Although, I personally believe most of the differences we see between catch locations is mostly due to genetics, with the outliers being Volta due to distance.
Again, these are just my opinions, and at the very least, something to be aware of for the newer polypterus keepers out there who might not understand various catch locations or where they actually are.
I just wanted to take the time to give everyone something to think about it and perhaps lessen the emphasis we, as poly keepers, are putting into these differences considering how incredibly close, for instance, all the variation of Endlicheri that have been showing up lately.
Here is a map to help illustrate how close these catch locations actually are together.
As you can see, Dabola, Tikinsso, and Faranah are all extremely close together. Guinea, for reference, is just slightly larger than the state of florida. So, its probably safe to say all of these catch locations are within 100-200 miles of each other, if not closer.
Volta is the exception in this case, perhaps why Voltas do, in fact, have a more distinct look to them.
In the states, we dont distinguish between say, a largemouth bass caught in Maryland vs Virginia (which is a relatable distance in this case). So just some food for thought.
With that said, I obviously don't know the exact locations where our polypterus are being caught or how isolated they actually are from another to form physical differences and traits. Although, I personally believe most of the differences we see between catch locations is mostly due to genetics, with the outliers being Volta due to distance.
Again, these are just my opinions, and at the very least, something to be aware of for the newer polypterus keepers out there who might not understand various catch locations or where they actually are.
