Post your Monster/Large Striped Raphaels (Platydoras costatus)!

[TheRudeDevil]

how it survives is unknown.

Mine is a knight with brown armor plates. That was what my red-eared slider found out when he tried to take a bite over my costatus "nose". So I guess as long as they keep their soft spot (their belly) away from danger, they can withstand a lot.
And as I wrote, my costatus considered my six malawii bumblebee cichlids (4-5") to be food. And that might be the reason to why he has grown over one inch during the last year.

 

[Irondale]

Mine is a knight with brown armor plates. That was what my red-eared slider found out when he tried to take a bite over my costatus "nose". So I guess as long as they keep their soft spot (their belly) away from danger, they can withstand a lot.
And as I wrote, my costatus considered my six malawii bumblebee cichlids (4-5") to be food. And that might be the reason to why he has grown over one inch during the last year.

It must be huge to consider a 4-5" fish a snack!

 

[TheRudeDevil]

It must be huge to consider a 4-5" fish a snack!

He's 7.1" (or more), and I don't think he swollowed them whole though, even though he seem to swollow any food I give him. The reason I got him from my friend was that he ate my friends ancistrus.

 

[knifegill]

These aren't costatus. They are armulatus. Taxonomic revision. You'll probably never see a costatus in your lifetime.

The biggest one in this shot is orinocodoras eigenmanni, 9". The other raphs are all platydoras armulatus.

There's more in my albums and in the media lounge.

 

[TheRudeDevil]

That's what I get for listening to the previous owner. But as it seems, these was misidentified as costatus up to late 2008, and the previous owner got it from a friend his before that, that told him that this was a costatus. Now I know better, and I found out that my Costas is a she. Wonder if I'd find a new name for her now that suites her better.

And thanks for making things clear knifegill

 

[knifegill]

Well, it's still in the trade and on stock lists as 'costatus', so even people discovering this fish as new hobbyists are being introduced to it as 'costatus'. Just like megalodoras uranoscopus still being called 'irwini' even though it's been several years since that name was valid. Scientific nomenclature isn't reviewed by the casual hobbyist and names can take decades to change.