Zipper rubidipinnis ?

[mikev]

After a few months this A. Botia decided that he is actually an A. rubidipinnis .. or is he?



(all zippers here started with no color in the fins, now some of them colored.


Here are two that colored together:



Somehow the one above makes me think "female"...

Any opinions?

In particular, this fin coloring .. it this common/normal/.... ?

[Emma Turner]

Graeme and I commented a while back on how some of the A. botia in stock at the shop had developed unusually coloured fins as they matured.

Emma

[The.Dark.One]

It's hard to say for definite as I can't accurately count the dorsal fin rays, but the count looks like botia, not rubidipinnis. The body and head shape also look more like botia.

[mikev]

I was not seriously suggesting it is a rubidipinnis ... but I still wonder exactly what this is. Zippers are not really rare-rare loaches but until now I never heard about red-finned A. Botia.

Did they start working some new locations so that both Emma and Frank ended up with new kinds of Zippers. And if it is a new kind, is the color related to sexual dimorphism?

[Emma Turner]

And I ought to clarify that my A. botia come from a different supplier - not the one that Frank and I have in common.

Emma

[mikev]

Frank had an interesting guess about this, here.

Do you happen to remember what kind of substrate you have in your Zipper tank?

[Emma Turner]

Yes, all our loach stock tanks (and the majority of all the other stock tanks) have a silica sand substrate. This is the dark golden variety that you see in a lot of my photographs. They also have plenty of cover in the form of rocks and bogwood.

Emma

[mikev]

May be this is all to it then. Frank does not see any reddening with his (and his came from the same shipment as mine). Mine did not redden until a large pleco decided to do some serious aquascaping and darkened the originally very light substrate.

Thank you.