Rare Fish pic From Rare Fish series

EntoCraig

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 22, 2011
133
2
0
Utah, USA
Wild Caught Hypancistrus sp. 'Rio Jarre' ... Resembles the L270 when younger but changes as an adult.





Australoheros obongum. You would think these would be more common, but they are dang near impossible to get unless you know a breeder, of which there are few.

 

fugupuff

M.A.N. Community Vendor
Community Vendor
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2005
4,405
1,885
2,179
Fish Heaven
So my rant for this morning. Many people take what we have now for granted, and I will list a few.

Before 1998, there were almost zero pygocentrus piraya, cariba and ternetzi in North America, or hobby. Back then Biotope which is now Belowwater.com by Oliver started to import them, and I would fly there to visit him and those fish. People would pay $500.00 each for a 4" pygocentrus ternetzi!

People use to tell me that pygocentrus piraya were not differentiated from p. natterreri until adults with the tuft adipose fin, old TFH documentation, and no pictures were available. All the old TFH pictures labeled piraya were all nattereri. and now everyone can see that piraya are bright flames and orange at a young age with no body spots, you don't need to wait until they get to an adult to differentiate them.

People like frank meggalanes use to argue with me about it all the time, said that he had one back in the 70s and had a picture, when he posted it, it was one old ass red bellie piranha. and he said that the ones Oliver brought in may not be the real thing, which I took picture of, and contributed to fishbase.org back then, if you look that picture was taken back in 1999 with a 1-megapixel dig cam

Cichla orinocensis- prior to 2004, they were rarely available
cichla melaniae, non documented
cichla pinima, we saw some and thought it was just a temensis variation
cichla cf. occelaris "brokopondo" prior to 2009, they were not available period.
cichla intermedia-only on fishing websites, still rare now.
cichla marianae "fogo" unheard of
cichla piquiti "azul" unheard of in the hobby, they had some in a black and white print photo from Shedd Aquarium back in the 1970s.

most people had only the farm raised monoculus

Tor putitora and other tors from India, they were just a legendary fish from fishing sites and books, this giant barb that lives at the Himalayan foothills. Until 2005, there were non available in the US trade as far as I'm concerned.

leptobotia elongata, how many do you see in the hobby? people say they've seen in in the early 90s or early 2000s, so where are they now?

Elopicthys bambusa, I use to only dream of this fish...

Hoplias aimara-only seen in Japanese magazines

the list goes on...and now days, people just casually email me, oh do you have anymore masheers, or xingu peacock bass, or bagarius...like its a store item from the shelf. Little do people realize the amount of work that is involved in getting the fish.

albino.jpg
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: Matteus and Iamfish

fugupuff

M.A.N. Community Vendor
Community Vendor
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2005
4,405
1,885
2,179
Fish Heaven
oh and there was this one guy that called me out on another site, saying that the fish I got by merely scratching myself and ordering from the Internet, and I didn't travel at all to go find any of these fish. Well, look he's selling this super rare tetradon duboisi from the Stanley pool, that he contracted his fisherman to go get, risking their lives, so its $800 dollar for this one puffer. Well, I've had them in my previous posts, and I sold it for maybe $200.00 or so, and Toyin Ojo, has brought them in on several occasions and sold for about 150-250 each I think.
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: Matteus and Iamfish

fugupuff

M.A.N. Community Vendor
Community Vendor
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2005
4,405
1,885
2,179
Fish Heaven
Would this be a bad time to ask about Malaysian mahseers? ;)
yes, yes, yes....haha.. I wish I could get some. There is something enigmatic about them...one company deep in Malaysia offers them, but at prices that rival asian arowanas! There are a few Indonesian companies that offer them, don't know the price, but also not as red, makes me wonder if the Indonesian ones are different. Did you get some from my friend ecz, he has some supposedly reds...
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store