Green Terrors are Green terrors or not?

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That was the original green terror that was brought into the hobby. Aquarists seem to have lost interest when the now common gold saum came around. They get larger, are not as aggressive towards tankmates and are far more attractive.
 
theres a lot of confusion over this species - let me give you my understanding -

as far as I know there are THREE fish availible

Aequidens "Gold Saum" - not the "real" rivulatus, by far the most common availible in the hobby, you can find them at every petsmart and petco in the world.

Aequidens "Silver Saum" - not the "real" rivulatus either, pretty much the same as the gold saum but with white edges on its fins. Not nearly as common. I've heard they are more aggressive as balton says.

Aequidens Rivulatus - The "real thing." Very very uncommon. Jeff Rapps imported some a few years ago. I had one, frankly it wasn't as attractive as the "domesticated" terrors and it was FREAKING EVIL, had to be kept alone.

I hope that enlightens you.
 
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cenecker;1471317; said:
theres a lot of confusion over this species - let me give you my understanding -

as far as I know there are THREE fish availible

Aequidens "Gold Saum" - not the "real" rivulatus, by far the most common availible in the hobby, you can find them at every petsmart and petco in the world.

Aequidens "Silver Saum" - not the "real" rivulatus either, pretty much the same as the gold saum but with white edges on its fins. Not nearly as common. I've heard they are more aggressive as balton says.

Aequidens Rivulatus - The "real thing." Very very uncommon. Jeff Rapps imported some a few years ago. I had one, frankly it wasn't as attractive as the "domesticated" terrors and it was FREAKING EVIL, had to be kept alone.

I hope that enlightens you.
Click to expand...

That's all you need to know right there. Any fish that you just purchase from an LFS is of the Saum variety, not a true Rivalatus but very similiar, minus the huge aggression.
 
I have a tank full of true green terrors A. Revulatus that I'm growing out to form breeding pairs. So far they seem to be fairly sedate fish. Slight differances in color patern and body shape can be seen. While not quite as flashy as the gold or silver saums they have a beauty all thier own when they reach adult size. I'd post pictures if they didn't spend most of thier time hiding...
 
The "true" GT's are not A. rivulatus. A different fish was described first as A. rivulatus, but the "true" GT's were imported as A. rivualtus (incorrectly) in the 70's.

The best thing to call them right now is A. sp. "true" green terror.

I have 3 of the "true" GT's from Tom Lorenz, and they're quite active. They just need dithers.

There has been many discussions on this already.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110056&highlight=true+green+terror

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108139&highlight=true+green+terror

http://www.lem.net/alf/aeq.htm

http://www.thewatersnake.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=525&pid=28607&st=0&#entry28607

http://www.cichlidae.com/forum/view...k=t&sd=a&sid=763b8292c02cf5dc35d49f4c75f598e6
 
These are Tom's fry as well. One is over 4.5" long already although most of them are smaller. We still have the 8 we started out with.
 
cenecker;1471317; said:
theres a lot of confusion over this species - let me give you my understanding -

as far as I know there are THREE fish availible

Aequidens "Gold Saum" - not the "real" rivulatus, by far the most common availible in the hobby, you can find them at every petsmart and petco in the world.

Aequidens "Silver Saum" - not the "real" rivulatus either, pretty much the same as the gold saum but with white edges on its fins. Not nearly as common. I've heard they are more aggressive as balton says.

Aequidens Rivulatus - The "real thing." Very very uncommon. Jeff Rapps imported some a few years ago. I had one, frankly it wasn't as attractive as the "domesticated" terrors and it was FREAKING EVIL, had to be kept alone.

I hope that enlightens you.
Click to expand...

:iagree:From what I've read on these fish this is the most accurate...to date
here's my Gold Saum from about 4 months ago
A047.jpg
 
japes;1471360; said:
That's all you need to know right there. Any fish that you just purchase from an LFS is of the Saum variety, not a true Rivalatus but very similiar, minus the huge aggression.
Click to expand...

Spot on...GOOD ADVICE to go on

Choose the Gold saum, they have the best color IMO. If you have several to choose from at the LFS, pick one who is very responsive to you and has really good edgeing/orange on its fins. You won't be disappointed when it matures. AWESOME fish!

Good luck!
 
Spot on except that the fish Jeff Rapps imported (and is selling right now) isn't actually the fish that was first described as A. rivulatus.

Just trying to clarify that. The fish that are floating around as "true" green terrors from spawns of the Jeff Rapps fish a few years ago are not, technically speaking, A. rivulatus.

Yes, they were imported under that name in the 70's and Rapps sold them as that and is doing so again right now, but it was discovered that a different fish has precedence to the name A. rivulatus.

It's all in the links I posted. Probably way more info than you wanted, but there ya go.
 
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