FYI, Mekong spiny eel ID/genetics

[Andyroo]

UNRAVELLING TAXONOMIC AMBIGUITY OF THE MASTACEMBELIDAE IN THE MEKONG DELTA (VIETNAM) THROUGH DNA BARCODING AND MORPHOLOGICAL APPROACHES
Thuy-Yen Duong, Liem Van Dung Tran, Ngoc-Tran Thi Nguyen, Jamsari Amirul Firdaus Jamaluddin, Mohd Nor Siti Azizah

https://doi.org/10.4081/tz.2020.72

apologies if I posted this last year, though I think this is the next-chapter paper.

 

[cockroach]

Links not working for me.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Thanks Andrew, very interesting.

So, from what I can tell, the brief paper shown pretty much says that some of the eels they found there (one in particular) and thought were one type, when looking at pattern, fin count and other morphological differences, actually turned out to be another type when looking at genetic gene bar code dna, which look very similar morphologically and they found genes to suggest a sister type relationship to the first eel species.

Essentially what this means for us laymen fish keepers is we are buggered!

if you think it looks like something, then it still might not be, so even if you try to keep it to the perfect parameters of that original something, you still might be doing it wrong!

So what does this really mean to us………………….
great, so the best we can do is guess what fish we are keeping and unless we know the exact conditions of the catchment area the best we can do is guess what conditions it would like to be kept in………………….. essentially no change to what we have been doing !

But, don’t go falling out over a fish ID !

The more we learn the less we know!