commonly mislabeled polypterus

[XRAYZ]

local fish stores and their distributers often struggle on correctly identifying polys. i put together a small guide that may help the new bichir owners.

the most common mistake i have seen is the "palmas" bichir. if they are not specific on what type of palmas(ie... polli, buetikoferi, or palmas palmas) than it is usually not a palmas but a common senegal. senegals are also labeled as dinosaur eels. 99.9% of all morphs like albino and longfin varieties are senegals too.

 

[JESToner]

funny story, my LFS has a tank full of baby senegals they have labeled as "polypterus palmeri" and about two tanks over they have a bunch of baby albino senegalus they have labeled as "albino senegalus"

its funny how they can have somthing mislabeled and still label the same species in another tank

 

[XRAYZ]

next up is the "congicus". commonly mislabeled for a lapradei. here is a pic of 2 lapradeis (nigerian and guinea variant) also a pic of a congicus for comparison.

 

[XRAYZ]

i have also seen a weeksii milabeled as a congicus.
pic of a weeksii...

 

[XRAYZ]

less common but i have seen others posted as "gold dust" which are palmas buetikoferi.

 

[XRAYZ]

everyone, feel free to add to the list

 

[ewurm]

Excellent thread, this might make a good sticky!

 

[silverknight]

ya pet stores have no clue what they have in their tanks
this one lady said that the long fin senegal bichir was $28 and when i returned with my wallet the other guy said it was $60. made me confused

 

[Im4u2nV]

sometimes the fish store just go by the 'stock list' they received from their distributor and they have no idea whatsoever about what kind of fish (nor they give a damn about it - i think) as long as they can sell them and make bucks...

of course we should NOT generalize all fish stores fall into this categories...

apart of it...in my area, only senegalus, ornate, delhezi, and endlicheri are the most common... others are never available..

 

[XRAYZ]

new entry
this is becoming more common... palmas polli being labeled as retropinnis.
palmas polli on top and retropinnis pic on bottom.