All Bichir (Polypterus) Species - Updated

[Josh's Fish]

Josh's Fish I retract my comment about the font. Apparently my 10 year old computer just sucks and didn't show it in HD. Just watched it on my phone and everything was very clear and crisp! The pacing was also better on my phone. Perhaps I was having an issue with YouTube pixel clarity and speed on my computer? The beginning was slower this time. Will learn to use the pause button for the longer slides. Im going to watch this video every day for a while! Again wonderful work super excited to watch it again. The anal cupping video is so neat. There's a sentence I never thought I'd say lol.

Haha no worries matey, the pacing of it is a common complaint. It was really just down to keeping the file at a managable size and so it wouldn't potentially put off some people with a shorter attention span, like me haha

Glad you enjoyed it and it was of use to you

 

[jaws7777]

Josh's Fish The anal cupping video is so neat. There's a sentence I never thought I'd say lol.

LMAO hahah.

 

[magpie]

Just watched the video and it's great! I just paused it at each text.

I didn't know that Ansorgiis' markings fade with age. I knew that about Ornates but not Ansorgii. It was also mentioned for Weeksiis. I find that interesting...

 

[Josh's Fish]

Just watched the video and it's great! I just paused it at each text.

I didn't know that Ansorgiis' markings fade with age. I knew that about Ornates but not Ansorgii. It was also mentioned for Weeksiis. I find that interesting...

Sorry, just a correction on a few things;
• Some P. ansorgii individual's markings fade with age (others that size have retained their markings),
• The thicker-bodied 20" Turkana P. senegalus senegalus has been re-classified as another P. senegalus meridionales, due to have DNA close matching to the original specimen caught in the Laulaba river.
• P. teugelsi reach 28 inch not 27", likely larger than 28" (will find out with time)

These will be updated to the charts after the publication of the Dabola studies as there is a chance it may be described a new species and could potential expand on the taxonomy of the Bichir group (P. bichir bichir, P. bichir lapradei & P. congicus) < not to be confused with the Bichir complex.

 

[Burbotman]

Just watched the video and it's great! I just paused it at each text.

I didn't know that Ansorgiis' markings fade with age. I knew that about Ornates but not Ansorgii. It was also mentioned for Weeksiis. I find that interesting...

That is good information, makes me think it is similar to animals like deer where the young have a pattern to break up their outline to avoid predators. Same principle with young bichirs to help camouflage them from predators. Here is good example, you can see only the remnants of his former pattern on my old weeksii

 

[kewpiefishypewpie]

I agree about the pacing, I had to pause at each slide as well. But the info was so crazy helpful that it doesn't make a difference to me, fantastic video. I'm new to poly's and this was a life saver for me. All the different species names seemed like gobbledygook before, now it's clear.

 

[FishBeast]

Thank you for sharing! Great info for sure!

 

[jaws7777]

Sorry, just a correction on a few things;
• Some P. ansorgii individual's markings fade with age (others that size have retained their markings),
• The thicker-bodied 20" Turkana P. senegalus senegalus has been re-classified as another P. senegalus meridionales, due to have DNA close matching to the original specimen caught in the Laulaba river.
• P. teugelsi reach 28 inch not 27", likely larger than 28" (will find out with time)

These will be updated to the charts after the publication of the Dabola studies as there is a chance it may be described a new species and could potential expand on the taxonomy of the Bichir group (P. bichir bichir, P. bichir lapradei & P. congicus) < not to be confused with the Bichir complex.

Josh there was discussion on fb regarding sp.dabola and sp. Guinea i would butcher any attempt at trying to explain them ontop of being a horrible poly id'er could you give a breif explanation of the two ?

 

[Josh's Fish]

Josh there was discussion on fb regarding sp.dabola and sp. Guinea i would butcher any attempt at trying to explain them ontop of being a horrible poly id'er could you give a breif explanation of the two ?

The patterns of sp. Dabola on the half of the body leading towards the caudal/penduncle area resembles closely to the Polypterus endlicheri or P. ansorgii.
Their holotype resembles that of the Bichir group, (P. bichir bichir, P. bichir lapradei and P. congicus) and the studies are pointing in the direction that they are most related to P. bichir lapradei and they are not in fact a hybrid. Possibly even a transitional species from the Bichir group to the Endlicheri group.
I couldn't give you a good description, as I feel you get an eye for it when you keep enough of them long enough.
I'd also like to wait til the study has been published before I give a proper description as the conclusion could be different and I don't want to mislead anyone

sp. Guniea I think is quite a loose term for a regional variation. I believe it is a regional variation for sp. Dabola, assuming sp. Dabola is its own species.
I couldn't go in to a visual description differentiating them as it's not an sp. I have seen that often.

King-eL would be someone who would know more on the undescribed variations.

 

[jaws7777]

The patterns of sp. Dabola on the half of the body leading towards the caudal/penduncle area resembles closely to the Polypterus endlicheri or P. ansorgii.
Their holotype resembles that of the Bichir group, (P. bichir bichir, P. bichir lapradei and P. congicus) and the studies are pointing in the direction that they are most related to P. bichir lapradei and they are not in fact a hybrid. Possibly even a transitional species from the Bichir group to the Endlicheri group.
I couldn't give you a good description, as I feel you get an eye for it when you keep enough of them long enough.
I'd also like to wait til the study has been published before I give a proper description as the conclusion could be different and I don't want to mislead anyone

sp. Guniea I think is quite a loose term for a regional variation. I believe it is a regional variation for sp. Dabola, assuming sp. Dabola is its own species.
I couldn't go in to a visual description differentiating them as it's not an sp. I have seen that often.

King-eL would be someone who would know more on the undescribed variations.

Thx for the reply. To me the whole sp.dabola situation is very interesting. In a weird way kind of humbling to know that we (humans) dont have it all figured out lol amazes me that we are able to keep a species we know so little about in a fish tank