my new pink-tail

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I bought mine as a 3" juve back in June 2016. He is a good 10" now and quite thick with it. Yours looks slimmer and more streamlined than mine and also the tail on yours is a proper fork. The tail on mine, the bottom lobe is larger and more rounded than the top lobe, you can make it out in the picture though the angle isn't brilliant.

Mine grew up in a 180 and at times would throw some right wobbles. They are insanely fast, i'm surprised he never injured himself. Then when I put him in his current 360 he calmed right down immediately. No more spurts of mad speed when spooked, he's proper chilled now.

I'll be honest with you, I don't even know which chalceus he is. I bought him as a pink tail but if yours is a true pink tail I don't think mine is.

View attachment 1389098
This is a C. erythrurus.
 
That's a C. macrolepidota. Snout is sharper and lacks yellow pelvic fins.

That was my initial thought, but if you look closely this fish does have a yellowish adipose fin. Moreover it looks quite different from my previous macrolepidota at the same size as seen on post 1 of this thread. It has more defined, darker scales and it is much more boisterous than my old macrolepidota ever was.

Oh well, probably just a variation of macrolepidota like you say.
 
The pics in Post18 has the body shape and finage of a Macro, but the conspicuous scales and a faint dot behind the gill plate resembles a Ery. I own both species and have a side by side pic for comparison.Yours could be a hybrid or a new species. I know there are more Chalceus species besides the two, but have never seen them in person.

98912FD9-9902-40A1-8E19-D007B794FB17.jpeg
 
You might want to have a look at your ID again. That one with the red blotches along the lateral line looks more like the C Epakros. The other one looks like the C Erythrurus.

Epakros below for reference.

406983.jpg
 
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You might want to have a look at your ID again. That one with the red blotches along the lateral line looks more like the C Epakros. The other one looks like the C Erythrurus.

Epakros below for reference.

View attachment 1494991
I bought both as PT, not knowing the scientific name. If Epakros is the correct name, so be it. But most species pics in the web labeled it as Maco and this is how I back figured the name. So there are at least 3 species in LFS circulation.
 
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You might want to have a look at your ID again. That one with the red blotches along the lateral line looks more like the C Epakros. The other one looks like the C Erythrurus.

Epakros below for reference.

View attachment 1494991

Lololol were back on epakros now. I always thought the old PTC I had (pages 1 and 2) could've been epakros since it had some reddish spots. From what I've seen though, they are only identified as epakros if the entire length of the body is spotted, while macrolepidota seem to sometimes have just a few spots and sometimes none at all.
 
The pics in Post18 has the body shape and finage of a Macro, but the conspicuous scales and a faint dot behind the gill plate resembles a Ery. I own both species and have a side by side pic for comparison.Yours could be a hybrid or a new species. I know there are more Chalceus species besides the two, but have never seen them in person.

View attachment 1494990

It would be very interesting if we could determine this fish to be a hybrid. Maybe as it develops it will morph into a definitive example of either though.

Those are both very nice chalceus thank you for sharing.
 
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Niiiiice new chalceus Backfromthedead Backfromthedead !
 
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There's been a lot of interest in this fish lately. I used to have one. I bought it in 2016 as a "pink tailed Chalceus". At the time I had no idea there were more Chalceus in the family. It wasn't until much later that I discovered there were more.

There are currently five known Chalceus.

1. C Epakros.
2. C Erythrurus (tucan fish).
3. C Guaporensis.
4. C Spilogyros.
5. C Macrolepidotus (common pink tailed Chalceus).

It seems that the most common one in the hobby, which is indeed sold as the pink tailed Chalceus, the Macrolepidotus, has some competition lol, which are muddying the waters.

My pink tailed Chalceus grew into a definite C. Erythrurus (the tucan fish). The only ones I've seen in the hobby are the Erythrurus and the Macrolepidotus, until I saw tiger15 tiger15 picture. That one, as you can see from the ref picture I posted is undoubtedly the C Epakros.

You may have a rarity there tiger15, I don't know. All I can say about Backfromthedead Backfromthedead Chalceus is that it has no red blotches, so probably not C Epakros, and to me it doesn't look like the C Erythrurus either. Maybe C Macrolepidotus, the true pink tailed Chalceus???

If not, then you could possibly have one of the other two, the Spilogyros or the Guaporensis.

It's all very interesting that's for sure, lol.
 
There's been a lot of interest in this fish lately. I used to have one. I bought it in 2016 as a "pink tailed Chalceus". At the time I had no idea there were more Chalceus in the family. It wasn't until much later that I discovered there were more.

There are currently five known Chalceus.

1. C Epakros.
2. C Erythrurus (tucan fish).
3. C Guaporensis.
4. C Spilogyros.
5. C Macrolepidotus (common pink tailed Chalceus).

It seems that the most common one in the hobby, which is indeed sold as the pink tailed Chalceus, the Macrolepidotus, has some competition lol, which are muddying the waters.

My pink tailed Chalceus grew into a definite C. Erythrurus (the tucan fish). The only ones I've seen in the hobby are the Erythrurus and the Macrolepidotus, until I saw tiger15 tiger15 picture. That one, as you can see from the ref picture I posted is undoubtedly the C Epakros.

You may have a rarity there tiger15, I don't know. All I can say about Backfromthedead Backfromthedead Chalceus is that it has no red blotches, so probably not C Epakros, and to me it doesn't look like the C Erythrurus either. Maybe C Macrolepidotus, the true pink tailed Chalceus???

If not, then you could possibly have one of the other two, the Spilogyros or the Guaporensis.

It's all very interesting that's for sure, lol.

Hmmm you're convincing but I'm still on the fence. My old chalceus had spots just like tiger15s and everyone seemed convinced it was macrolepidotus.
20200410_143942.jpg
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Moreover, in this comprehensive write up on chalceus, it is stated that mature macrolepidotus can also have a darkened lateral line.
Screenshot_20220515-182140_Chrome.jpg

There's quite a bit of info there...it seems the only 100% way to tell macrolepidotus from epakros is the presence of a cranial fontanel between the frontal and parietal bones in macrolepidotus that no other chalceus possesses.
Screenshot_20220515-181232_Chrome.jpg

20200410_144047.jpg
Tbh im not sure if Luke had one or not...

tiger15 tiger15 can we get a head on pic of your chalceus to compare?
 
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