The BIG Reveal - Chitala lopis

[SourAngelfish]

I’ve been keeping this guy hidden for quite a while, I’m very familiar with its few extant relatives and have been confident in raising this guy. This fish is now considered by many (including IUCN ) to be extinct, but I have acquired a true specimen.

I randomly received a message one day from a buddy who had gotten some fish caught and imported out of Indonesia, asked if I wanted this oddball Chitala, was questioning whether it was Lopis but couldn’t get a proper ID over the phone. Paid the wholesale price (it came in labeled as simply “chitala”) and the high price to overnight ship it and it showed up the next day.

Spent hours keying it, looking through papers on lopis and the other spotless chitala relatives. Immediately ruled out ornata and blanci, then chitala chitala as it was lacking the stripes on its back and has the signature black spot under the pectoral fin. Was stuck with the 3 species left, the rarer chitala: borneensis, hypselonotus, and lopis.

I ruled out borneensis first, shockingly this was the hardest one to find info on. Eventually dug through iNaturalist and Facebook (of all places) and found an odd looking chitala with a strange speckled patterning (significantly different to that of blanci), labeled as borneensis. I took this and figured I do not have this species. Next hypselonotus. Hypselonotus if seen in tanks keep a very white coloring. True lopis in tanks are very dark and under certain lights have a beautiful purple and green hue (seen in video soon to be linked). This distinct coloring has caused me to rule out the last species.

I must say, this is the jewel of my collection, none of my other fish really compare to this specimen. It eats relatively light, mostly preferring live worms and crayfish, but I’ve recently gotten it on frozen. I would be extremely interested if others own this awesome fish. Considering very few must be left in the wild, some sort of effort to get the remaining few together would be incredible.

Video




And I apologize for the terrible photo quality. This is one of the most shy fish I have ever kept and it is near impossible to photograph it. All of these photos and videos were taken in the moment when it happened to be out of its cave…

Overall, awesome fish.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Love the eyes

 

[celebrist]

Very cool

 

[SourAngelfish]

Here’s another (pretty crappy) full body image. It’s such a majestic fish.

Did some digging today and pulled up some images of when I first received him, nice to see he is on a steady growth rate of what I would assume 1 inch per month. Similar to Chitala ornata.

 

[SourAngelfish]

Doing some more looking around and general research. Have determined iridophores are a distinct characteristic of true Lopis. They seem to be lacking in borneensis, hypselonotus, and blanci as well.

this is why there doesn’t appear to be a true “platinum” clown knife, usually just well groomed albinos/golden

 

[SourAngelfish]

This can be seen in the YouTube video linked above, the fish reflects a greenish purple hue similar to a beetle, just on a lower scale

 

[SourAngelfish]

Have some big news coming soon on this fella. Have discussed with some Indonesian ichthyologists and may be sending samples of the fish to the Smithsonian’s ichthyology department. This is about to get interesting

 

[Chub_by]

Have some big news coming soon on this fella. Have discussed with some Indonesian ichthyologists and may be sending samples of the fish to the Smithsonian’s ichthyology department. This is about to get interesting

That is very interesting indeed! Also quite curious to see what size this guy maxes out at. Here's hoping you have him long enough to find out.

 

[SourAngelfish]

That is very interesting indeed! Also quite curious to see what size this guy maxes out at. Here's hoping you have him long enough to find out.

I am very curious as well, trust me I have made a huge effort to keep this guy's water parameter and diet on point. I will likely publish some sort of care sheet (although it may not be very useful) down the line. Having peaked some ichthyologist's interest, I may have better means of keeping this fish alive and healthy for as long as possible.

I am still attempting to consolidate some of the information I have received, will probably have a huge post coming this weekend. I have been promised some papers on the Chitala genus that are not publically available online or in person. Nice to have piqued several ichthyologist's interest. To put it simply, the fish I have is displaying traits found in both borneensis and hypselonotus. It has been brought to my attention that lopis was a blanket term for these two species, however the original lopis still existed. My specimen has sparked some curiousity as it contains some traits found in both of these once blanketed species, preventing it to be 100% categorized as either. It is a pretty deep mess from what I can tell, looks as if there has been some political troubles too concerning legitimizing lopis as a true species, trust me I didnt expect to be loaded with the amount of reading I have today.

 

[SourAngelfish]

First teaser I am treating you all with. These are images of Chitala hypselonotus and Chitala borneensis.


C. borneensis


C. hypselonotus

Borneensis sometimes has spotting similar to C. blanci but more normally has peppering near its tail end as seen in this fish. This species also lacks the black spot behind pectoral fin (to my belief and from what I have read/have been taught)

Hypselonotus has stark white coloring and a rather large black spot behind pectoral.