Lepidocephalichthys cf. berdmorei

[Thomas]

Hi,

Yesterday I get some Lepidocephalichthys, they were sold as L. cf. berdmorei. Would you agree that this is a L. berdmorei and no cf.?




Unfortunately, two died and one is not in good condition. But the other seven seems to be alright and they eat (very shy but they eat)

Bye, Thomas

[mickthefish]

i'll leave this to the ones with a bit more knowledge than me Thomas, but in my opinion it does'nt look like mine.
the shape does'nt correspond to mine, the peduncle is to wide.

mick

[Graeme Robson]

They look more Misgurnus than Lepidocephalichthys. Perhaps that may be the best result.

[Thomas]

Yes Mick, they don't look like yours.

@Graeme
some fishes has definitly "Cobitis/Lepidocephalichthys" patterns and a Misgurnus with such markings are unkown for me.

But I will go and count the Barbels - then we know more (hopefully)

[Thomas]

The tail does not looks like Misgurnus, it is not convex and counting the barbels is not so easy as I thought. But I'm nearly 90% sure that they have only 8 barbels and not 10 like Misgurnus. But I have to confirm this. The fishes are very shy and quickly move in the background.

Here is the tail of one of the new loaches:


But I also have to say that the format is very Misgurnus, but the details say something else, I think.

[daspricey]

Interesting find Thomas. Misgurnus was my very first thought to but like you said the tail & spot don't add up to any misgurnus sp i've heard of before - and i believe only anguillicaudatus, fossilis and mizolepis have ever entered the trade so far. It could also be a cobitis as you mentioned, there must be like 50 odd species.

David

[mickthefish]

even so lads, all the pics ive seen of the cobitis family none have the width at the peduncle as Thomas's does.
the only ones i saw for sale was taenia, and at the time i was into SA fish so i left them where they were, stupid bugger i am.

mick

[piggy4]

Hi Thomas , is there any chance of finding out where they were exported from ?
Just looked at the species guide and M. Anguilicaudatus appears to have a spot , although it seemes fainter , its in a similar place to the one on your fish , i always thought this spot was a common occurance on Misgurnus, lepidecephalus and Cobitis ?
It seems feesable that your fish came from Burma !
I think M anguilicaudatus occurs in Burma also , has anyone seen the burmese variety ?

[daspricey]

Can regional variations lead to different shaped fins and bodies then? It's just i can't find any correlation with this tail with my loach. Not as "tall" (lol, don't know the right way to say that) just before the caudal fin, no sign of even a feint spot, caudal fins just the same colour and imo just not the same shape.

This is really interesting, anyone got a misgurnus paper?

David

[Thomas]

Thanks for your replies.

is there any chance of finding out where they were exported from ?

I think he said that they were from Myanmar (Burma)

Can regional variations lead to different shaped fins and bodies then?

i can't imagine that it is, but who knows...

Thomas

[Thomas]

Hi,

The typical characteristic of the genus Lepidocephalichthys are thickened last pectoral rays of the male. This I have seen yesterday at two of my loaches (and two others haven't this - so I have at least two pairs)

The fishes no. 5 and 6 don't show me their pectoral fins so I can't say what they are

I would say that Lepidocephalichthys is the right genus.

If (cf) berdmorei the right species is another question.

Bye, Thomas

[Thomas]

Hello,

A small update, today I made this shot. This two loaches seems to have a little bit "social behaviour". The male (left) often visits the female and follows her.



Not so good to report is that I have only three of them and only this two looks very healthy. One is in quarantaine because he is very thin and I wouldn't be surprised if he dies in a few weeks. I seperated him to have a better control about the feeding

Bye

Thomas

[Emma Turner]

The two in that photograph look in superb condition. Thanks for the update Thomas! I really hope you manage to save the other one.

Emma