Flagtail ID

[jclyde13]

Well they definetly don't stop growing at 8". Mine appears to be the same as yours, with the exeption of the length of the finnage on mire. It's about 13" now, got it in May of 2010 at 5". Crappy cell phone pic but you get the idea.

View attachment 759731

But yours appears to have lost all black coloration on its scales...


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[everlastace]

Yeah, I don't see any real differences in the pics of each species that I've found on the internet. The only thing so far that has held up is the variation between black coloration vs. lack thereof.


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Ive never really seen many without the black. I've only seen a few pictures without it, and i have seen them listed under both species names. Weird deal.

 

[jclyde13]

Ive never really seen many without the black. I've only seen a few pictures without it, and i have seen them listed under both species names. Weird deal.

I see them all the time in pictures and videos online. I'm not sure whether or not I've seen them in person, though (I don't see flagtails in general very often).


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[Bderick67]

But yours appears to have lost all black coloration on its scales...


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I see what you mean, never have researched the difference in the two. Maybe I'll see what I can dig up.

 

[12 Volt Man]

for what its worth:

when I worked at my LFS back in the mid 2000s suppliers lists used to list two species (common names):

red flagtail
yellow flagtail

we got in some of the yellow flagtails that when juvenile had black and white striped tails.

don't know if they turned orange later on or not.

i have a feeling there may be a few colour variations of the same species in different locales down in the amazon.

 

[jclyde13]

Well, to throw another monkey wrench into the equation, according to the article in the link below, there is hybridization between these two species. According to the information in this article, mine is either a Semaprochilodus insignis, or a hybrid (most likely hybrid, assuming their identification methods are accurate).

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0101-81751984000300001&script=sci_arttext

 

[MyGiants]

This picture shows the difference with (1) Taeniarus having more spots taller dorsal fin. (2) Insignis having faint to no spots and broader shorter dorsal fin.

 

[jclyde13]

This picture shows the difference with (1) Taeniarus having more spots taller dorsal fin. (2) Insignis having faint to no spots and broader shorter dorsal fin.

I've seen that picture before, but it seems that in real life, the differences between the two species are far more obscure than the way they're portrayed in the illustrations.


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[Sonny503]

Great topic, one of the fish on my to get list. once my tank is established.

 

[Bderick67]

Well did some research on this, not much anything new to add. Though it seems the max size for taeniarus is 10" or 24-25cm according to the magority of the site I looked at. Couldn't really find and pics of large adult taeniarus or insignis.

This picture shows the difference with (1) Taeniarus having more spots taller dorsal fin. (2) Insignis having faint to no spots and broader shorter dorsal fin.

Mine seems to have the finnage of the taeniarus and the scale pattern of the insignis. Maybe a hybrid of the two