Question about "saddled" poly

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J

jonoz

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 22, 2008
38
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Brisbane
Hey all,

Was going to buy my first poly here in aus along with his tankmate (a 45cm clown knife) but firstly the seller told me it was a delhezi but then going over and having a look he referred to it as a saddled bichir which is the common name for enlicheri.

so anyway, I will try to take a picture but more for my questioning before I purchase him because he is $350! :nilly: his back is very pronounced from his head like he does have a saddle, i was just wondering if this is normal as all the pictures ive seen dont show this.

any ideas?

any ways to clearly tell whether its a delhezi or endlicheri?
 
take a look at the head shape and jaw

delhezi:
polypterus%20delhezi%202.JPG


endli:
Nigeria%20endlicheri%20XXL%2002-06.jpg


plus if its already over 14" you know its an endli :D

good luck!
 
if the lower jaw protrudes farther than the upper jaw, it's an endli. otherwise, it's vice-versa. dels usually have more gold colors than endlis, too. i'd love to c a pic, though


edit: damn, i've been usurped, lol
 
is it normal for a poly not to be rounded tho? like then only way I can describe what he looks like is a high back arowana.

is that normal?
 
sorry but was just chasing through some poly threads and the dude Im looking to buy looks like this;

polysagain035.jpg


is it just possibly a male thing that they have a kinda humpy back?
 
well a normal body profile would look like the pics wolfsburgfanatic posted. if you see a rather abrupt rise in the back profile immediately behind the head giving a high back look, then the fish is either extremely obese or it's a deformity that's seen in captive bred fish. Either case, it's not what i'd consider normal.

anyway, some people like it, but it's definitely not my cup of tea. Anyway, i would most definitely look for a prime looking individual (so first off, it should look normal), especially if i were in a place like Aus where bichirs are hard to come by and are expensive.

in the end, its up to you, and if you can get a pic or find one that looks like it, we can confirm whether the fish you see is actually normal or not.
 
Infblue;2351231; said:
in the end, its up to you, and if you can get a pic or find one that looks like it, we can confirm whether the fish you see is actually normal or not.
Click to expand...

well the picture of the one above that MsMassPoly owns looks very similar but the one I was looking at purchasing is smaller and has the same body shape.
 
edit: yeah i was in the middle of typing my reply when you posted the pic.

the humpy back look isn't just a male thing. Some captive bred fish have this humpy back look, male and female. And sometimes a greedy eater would look kinda like this too because it's probably getting obese. it's kinda hard to see in that pic because of the angle. anyway, normal or not is kinda hard to say. if it's a humpy look, I wouldn't say it's abnormal like a true high back or spoonhead, but then again you wouldn't really see this in wild caught fish. Just a result of long term captive breeding that has changed the body profile of the fish.
 
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