Hi all, i was pointed to this topic this morning by a client.
Well I certainly wish I did. Unfortunately, the 1 and only person who was exporting the 'vazzoleri' from Brazil had them miss Id'd. When they arrived I had held onto them for a little while and consulted with 3 experts on Cichla so I can positively confirm if they were indeed vazzos or not. When marketing a highly desired species that has never been imported to North America(knowingly) I took the time for due diligence. The ID was based first on the actual photo of the parents to the juveniles that were swiped by the actual fisherman who collected them. Second, by the look of the juveniles while they were still in brazil through multiple video texts and then a clear look at them when they arrived here in North America. because TUIC has a 2 decade relationship with the exporter I was able to not only get those pics from the actual man who collected them I was also able to get the location they were collected from as well. if you didn't know, the fisherman HATE to give up collection locations. It is their livelihood so they do not want other fisherman encroaching on the the fishing spot. So sometimes getting the information takes a bit of poking. With a long standing relationship they sometimes give it up much easier. The vazzos listed by the exporter did not have a location tagged to the name. I had to go back and forth on many emails and texts to get the information and that was after i had already ordered nearly all that were available. They were collected in the Rio Tapajos and brought up to port in Satarem. Vazzoleri are accepted to be only from Rio Trombetas(and its tributaries) which is a few kilometers north west of the Tapajos and is separated by the Amazon main river. While is certainly not impossible for the fish to swim down river, catch a brief ride on the Amazon main river and hang a right turn into the Rio Tapajos it is just not likely. based on the adult photos, the collection location and the juvenile pattern of the fish once they arrived it was confirmed the vazzoleri are in fact pinima. Sorry guys. I will tell you that myself and the 2-3 others that imported these most certainly paid the price for what we hoped were vazzoleri.
to thickin the pot a bit, it is my understanding that vazzoleri and pinima are to be synonyms of each other. Time will tell. if that holds true than pinima i believe is the older nae and will stick. but, that is another topic lol. for now they are pinima.
