What poly species did I buy today..?

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Dragon2

Dragon2

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 8, 2013
17
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Netherlands
www.dragon2.nl
Short story: Went to a large reptile/fish show today. Ended up with an unknown poly. :oops:


It is a 'rescue' fish, it was in a tank with other rescues like 2 species of lung fish (xxl and xxxl), a lot of adult oscars, some malawi cichlids and another poly. They had no idea what species they had (aside from the oscars). The price list went like 'African', 'Lungfish', etc :(

I liked this one poly a lot so I brought it home. No clue what species I have though, they said it wasn't going to grow any bigger, but they clearly didn't know much so took that with a grain of salt.

So, my new poly is about 30cm (12 inch) tail-tip to snout, it is in bad shape/lost some dorsal fin, and is now by itself in a small tank I did not have quite ready, ahem. I don't want to put it in with my other bichirs, ropefish etc until I know I can keep it size- and temperament-wise, and it is healed up and the dorsal fin not inflamed anymore.

Can anyone help with identifying please?

poly_cm.jpg


poly_head.jpg
 
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Lapradei. Looks stressed. Should ok with polys and ropes as long as fed and no live foods.

Super clean water will get it better. Can add salt but don’t need to. 1tsp per gallon one time only.
 
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I'm fairly certain that it's actually a hybrid. It has the look of a washed out grown Ornatipinnis, but with 12/13 finlets. Further its lower jaw is decidedly shorter than its upper jaw.

Beautiful fish in any case.
 
kno4te said:
Lapradei. Looks stressed. Should ok with polys and ropes as long as fed and no live foods.

Super clean water will get it better. Can add salt but don’t need to. 1tsp per gallon one time only.
Click to expand...
Captive bred Lapradei.
 
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I am definitely not trying to say I know more then either Hao Hao or kno4te kno4te because I don't, to me it looks like the lower jaw terminates before the upper. Now that could be a trick of camera angles or from the bad environment it came from. When I first saw this thread I thought for sure it was some upper jaw hybrid like moke/sen or del/ I dont know what. Maybe even a wahed out del with a weird head shape.
Anyway I hope it comes around for you.
 
I think you guys( twentyleagues twentyleagues and Mighty Wizard Mighty Wizard ) noticed it best. These are flaws of bad breeding of lapradeis. Which makes sense as Hao Hao pointed out.

Laps aren’t too bad with breeding as don’t notice much changes unlike other polys. Maybe this a turning point for cb laps.
 
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That's definitely a hybrid, probably PBL/PBB x some lower jaw, hard to say exactly which.

As touched on earlier the lower jaw is quite obviously smaller than the lower jaw, a trait you wouldn't see in an UJ species at that size. Also the finlets don't at all look like what you'd find on an upper-jawed species, the finlets branch out about halfway, something you mostly see in lower jawed species. Endlicheri would be the exception. Lastly there's the general shape and proportions of the fish. The head is slightly convex, and the body slightly rounded, again something I don't think you'd find in a lower jawed species at that size.

And it's not because of poor genes/conditions, the fish actually looks quite healthy.

All in all, that's exactly what a 50/50 mix of upper-jaw and lower-jaw looks like.
 
So, I have either a crappy cb lapradei or a lapradei-hybrid, no wonder I couldn't identify the species on my own :confused: I've never liked the look of the lower jaws as much, the other poly in the tank was one of those for sure.

Can I expect it to be done growing? Or could it get up to lapradei sizes like 30"...

It is a good deal bigger already than my senegalus, in fact I'm hesitant to put them together due to that. My senegalus are crappy cb's; 2 out of the 3 have a deformed pectoral, and they didn't grow as long and not as wide as they should IMO.
They are about 20cm, rats I thought they were bigger than that, perhaps bringing this new poly home wasn't the best of ideas :oops:

He is an awfully nice fish though :)
 
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