Mahseer & Other Cyprinids

[GiantFishKeeper101]

Change of fish but still keeps the old. The fish I'm after are not available to me (yet/ever) , so I needed new excitement, chose mahseers & other cyprinids.

For the last few weeks, I've studied a bit of Malaysian mahseer species & got me intrigue of their tropic morphism. Interesting thing, same species but morphological features varied between rivers & environments; median lobe, body type, color, etc.

So this is my first local wild mahseer, this exact mahseer are protected by state's law, inhabits lower region of my state. Species of red mahseer (Tor tambra) but with bluish fin.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

I cant wait til mahseers starting go show up on the lists over here. Do you mind me asKing what fish your after?

 

[GiantFishKeeper101]

I cant wait til mahseers starting go show up on the lists over here. Do you mind me asKing what fish your after?

Pseudoplatystoma corruscans/tigrinum & Jau Catfish. I can understand why I can't acquire the shovelnose but for Jau, they're available but it seems hard to import it. I've ask so many importers to bring it in, some got close. In the end, it's a no show.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

Pseudoplatystoma corruscans/tigrinum & Jau Catfish. I can understand why I can't acquire the shovelnose but for Jau, they're available but it seems hard to import it. I've ask so many importers to bring it in, some got close. In the end, it's a no show.

Ahh. Id love to have an jau myself but i dont have the space atm.

 

[shookONES]

Beautiful fish. Must be surreal to live so close to where these gems are native.

Just curious how you arrived at the Tor Tambra designation? Aside from the obvious color difference, this fish has a different head shape and much higher back than I’m used to seeing in Tambra. I suspect a different species altogether.

 

[GiantFishKeeper101]

Beautiful fish. Must be surreal to live so close to where these gems are native.

Indeed, they're protected species though, most mahseer in the hobbies are farm version.

Just curious how you arrived at the Tor Tambra designation? Aside from the obvious color difference, this fish has a different head shape and much higher back than I’m used to seeing in Tambra. I suspect a different species altogether.

Reference from Walton et al 2016, taken from my fb local fish group discussion, posted by fish biologists. Apparently there are no T. tambroides, all belong to T. tambra just different morphism. For now, it has been concluded that only T. tambra exist in Malaysia, aside from Blue Endau Mahseer (that considered to be T. douronensis before this-no further research). This research are the definitive species id for now.

In terms of body shape & color, Sunda Islands' mahseer have tropic polymorphism, which the same species differs between areas, makes it hard to pin point the exact id except for genetic test, which suprisingly end up having the same results, same species. As for the colors, there's a breeding research here that found local red mahseer can produce 20-30% blue offspring, theorised to be some sort of recessive genes & supported the study of molecular research of colour yellow, red & blue to be phenotypic variation.

Example of tropic morphism in Neolissochilus stracheyi from "Mahseers genera Tor and Neolissochilus (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from southern Vietnam"



a - 16.3cm sub-adult
b - 23.8cm adult
c - 28.7cm gold adult "Neo"-morphism
d - 42.8cm Tor-morphism
e - 53.4cm female adult

Trust me, mahseers aren't unlike any other fish in taxonomic identication, species can have crossover feature of Tor to Neo & Neo to Tor, that what makes it hard.

 

[Chicxulub]

Excellent thread!

 

[GiantFishKeeper101]

Neolissochilus soroides (synonyms: Lissochilus tweediei/Tor soro)



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Neolissochilus soroides but with long median lobe of a mahseer, proofing of morphotypes between Tor & Neolissochilus sp.



Neolissochilus id - tubercles on cheek & upper mouth area



Adult N. soroides, tubercles are much more prominent



Comparison of 3 N. soroides specimen of mouth morphotypes, left to right, 1. Normal, 2. 'Tor' morph, 3. Pointed

 

[GiantFishKeeper101]

Khaironizam et al 2015


3 mouth types of N. soroides, just like the figure 5 in post #8


Extreme Tor morphic feature Vs Normal Tor morphic feature of N. soroides