if you look close and count you will see they have 7 bars. A few are faded out but you can see them. my observation over the years has been that they (the bars)fade out and the bars break up as the fish get older. young juveniles have a strong barred pattern that looks irregular at first and then as they grow into some size they begin to look more uniform only to then break up and fade out as they get older. The bars also show stronger or weaker depending on mood, breeding or not, and surroundings such as bare bright tank vs bare dark tank or decorated tank with dark vs light substrate and/or backgrounds. The biggest thing I see with them from unknown source is they aren't blue. These should be very blue even as small as 1/4"! often I see them as gray or basically a striped convict with 'some' blue hues. Another issue is, is that two populations of fish from the same region but different river systems were being passed around as HRP by hobbyists. The Danli(Los Almendros in Patuca drainage) and the Mongo fish(Papaloteca drainage) at one time were both being called hrp.
If you are getting fish from myself or from Ken Davis then they should be the real thing. I, as Ken both, obtained ours from the original group that was sent out in the late 90s. While mine(and Rustys and Kens for sure) are many, many generations in nowadays the important thing is that they(mine) have never been mixed with any species they would hybridize with. I cannot comment about the others because only they would now. However, the others are fantastic breeders and sources so I would not question the lineage. I did see Rustys in person 3 months ago and they are no different than mine at home. If he and I mixed them we would not be able to tell them apart. His shared a tank with only livebearers. I would assume Kens are no different but I have never seen them or the setup so I can only vouch that he is reputable source and one of the only others I know that keep the real ones.
