How many species of Dorado are there?

[DB junkie]

Simple question I'd like to turn into a discusion......

How many species of Dorado are available to us in the hobby?

Which ones do we have?



I've got my own thoughts and feelings on this, but I've been shot down many of times, for many years, so I'll save mine and would like to focus on what the current general consensus is......

Thanks to you who choose to participate!!!

 

[Miguel]

In here, none...
I have fished for the big one , in the Parana River, in Argentina ( I believe Saliosus ),a nd i have fished smaller ones in Amazon tributaries.

Never saw one for sale, in European lists...

 

[Chicxulub]

Maybe my next project?

The Argentine variety is the big, fat gold one. These fish were formerly known as Salminus maxillosus but have since been revised to be a junior synonym of Salminus brasiliensis. Whether or not the Argentine variety is worthy of speciation, I'm not sure from a simple cursorial glance at the species. It is however noticeably thicker bodied with a more massive head.

The Brazilian fish are all farm raised now and are the ones that are common in the hobby. The big headed Argentine fish are only available as wild caught specimens and are VERY rare in the hobby. Wes actually has an extremely limited number of the real ones coming up for sale. Man, if I wasn't already committed to Max....

 

[Chicxulub]

Oh, and from a cursorial search, there appears to be four species:

Salminus affinis

Salminus brasiliensis

Salminus franciscanus

Salminus hilarii

 

[Miguel]

I was mistaken, Rob and DB. I said Saliosus and in fact it is Maxillosus.

I can only describe those golden mosnters while fishing for them in Argentina. The impact on the lure, the speed, the strenght.

The beauty of them. Incomparably bulkier than the amazonian ones, of which I saw only small fish.

 

[Chicxulub]

I was mistaken, Rob and DB. I said Saliosus and in fact it is Maxillosus.

I can only describe those golden mosnters while fishing for them in Argentina. The impact on the lure, the speed, the strenght.

The beauty of them. Incomparably bulkier than the amazonian ones, of which I saw only small fish.

Close enough, I knew what ya meant lol

I'd love nothing more than to have ~40 pounds of huge, angry tetra on the end of my line, be it the Argentinian or the African variety lol

 

[DB junkie]

Chicx, thanks for chiming in! You too Miguel!

Let me toss out a hunch.....

We all have farm rasied Hilarii, sold to us as the more desirable Maxsillosus. This could be why some of us sit here waiting, watching, hoping that our silver "golden Dorado" is zapped by lucky the leprichaun and turned to the gold ones we all see and drool all over in the fishing pics.....

Google image search makes me think this is very probable!!!

I plan to prove or disprove this "hunch".........

Sounds to me like you're comitted to a single tank Chicx....... My condolences to you sir. I could never imagine such a travesty.

 

[isde02]

Chicx, thanks for chiming in! You too Miguel!

Let me toss out a hunch.....

We all have farm rasied Hilarii, sold to us as the more desirable Maxsillosus. This could be why some of us sit here waiting, watching, hoping that our silver "golden Dorado" is zapped by lucky the leprichaun and turned to the gold ones we all see and drool all over in the fishing pics.....

Google image search makes me think this is very probable!!!

I plan to prove or disprove this "hunch".........

Sounds to me like you're comitted to a single tank Chicx....... My condolences to you sir. I could never imagine such a travesty.

can you post a pic of the Salminus hilarii, my dorado that I got from rapps started showing gold at 12-14"

 

[Chicxulub]

Chicx, thanks for chiming in! You too Miguel!

Let me toss out a hunch.....

We all have farm rasied Hilarii, sold to us as the more desirable Maxsillosus. This could be why some of us sit here waiting, watching, hoping that our silver "golden Dorado" is zapped by lucky the leprichaun and turned to the gold ones we all see and drool all over in the fishing pics.....

Google image search makes me think this is very probable!!!

I plan to prove or disprove this "hunch".........

Sounds to me like you're comitted to a single tank Chicx....... My condolences to you sir. I could never imagine such a travesty.

I think you might be on to something with your hypothesis. Dorados have been on my checklist of projects to tackle for clarification and with the completion of my goonch project, I think this might be a good time to get at it.

You down for a collabo to knock this problem out?

can you post a pic of the Salminus hilarii, my dorado that I got from rapps started showing gold at 12-14"

They all start to show some gold, but the supposed hilarii only have a little gold on the fins, head and back, they keep the white flanks. They never get the nice, pure gold color like the true goldens do.

 

[lix.ma14]

Ask Wes! lol