... Regarding the aforementioned tiger shovelnose species Ps. orinocoense; I can assure anyone interested to read that I did not conveniently label these fish as such when I included a few on a previous Colombian import.
I communicate directly with my exporters. I requested this species to be sought by fisherman collecting in Orinoco tributaries. I know well that there are at least 3 tiger shovelnose species that may occur in the same waters. Without making my request too difficult to fulfill, I asked my contact to relay to fisherman that they may look for the tiger shovelnose with red tail.
Please don't get dramatic and throw your hands in the air, crying 'red tail shovelnose hybrid'!
The fish were collected from the Colombian wild in very limited quantity as described and not from a farm where hybridized red tail cat x tiger shovelnose are produced by the millions.
Based on what I could ascertain, this cat was identified to the best of my ability given the information I possessed at the time.
I spend a great deal of time keying out cichlids, catfish, characins, etc. that I import.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I don't get off on marketing fish by trendy names or telling the customer what they want to hear to make a quick sale. I'm in this business for the long run and work very long hours to maintain a level of personally acceptable accountability.
That translates to expecting much more of myself and maintaining a greater level of responsibility than most may ask of me.
Have you seen the huge variety of catfish species or wild S. Am. cichlid species that I have in stock at any given time?
They surely don't arrive with name tags clipped onto their fins or live in homes with their names on mailboxes when I'm personally collecting them!
The internet is a fantastic reference source. Access to scholarly/research published articles is very important to me.
Further knowledge of collection points is truly indispensable information when attempting to determine what species of fish just came out of the box I imported.
I earned a Master's Degree in Aquatic Biology prior to stepping off the deep end and diving into the specialty ornamental fish import/collection/breeding/distribution business back in 1989.
I still enjoy the opportunity to import or collect fish that are in need of identification.
If nothing else, at the end of the day (or career as it may eventually apply), I'd like to know that I was of some service and provided resources to individuals interested to participate...
and who really knows for certain... i may just have a 34" p. orino lol... good news for u is he really never exceeded 26" until placed in a 1,700 g pool. My specimen is also 7 yrs old... i aquired him at 18" 6 yrs ago. i do have another 6-7 yr old tsn sp. under 26" but it looks nothin like ur 2.
