Is this a royal green terror?

[viejafish]

GT are line bred in Asia where standards are established to grade GT similar to FH. A high quality fish has tall body, big hump, and thick orange saum. The overall color is important, but secondary to other traits as every GT is green. Domesticated GT are not line bred and the quality is all over the map according to Asian standards. That said, wild caught GT have long body or white saum which is low quality according to Asian standards, but irrelevant as wild fish are not made for grading.

GT hump size is partly genetic, and partly mood based. I've seen GT hump size inflate or deflate overnight due to change in dominant position. A single GT can sustain big hump as it interacts with owner or tankmates, which makes keeping GT interesting.

 

[neutrino]

"Quality" in the way it's being discussed here is largely subjective and little to do with the health or natural fitness of the fish and not necessarily all that relevant to it's natural beauty, except in the eyes of the hobbyist beholder.

As far as "royal" green terrors, no matter how a breeder or group of breeders chooses to define "royal" characteristics, it's basically another instance in the hobby of attaching a non-scientific marketing name to individuals or to a line bred strain. It doesn't identify a sub-species or unique population in the way "royal pleco" identifies specific L number plecos.

I've done a lot of breeding myself and had my share of green terrors, including some wilds. Essentially, in most good quality breeding groups or pairs of just about any species, you'll get some exceptional individuals in most spawns ime, bigger, brighter, longer fins, etc. You could call them royal if you want or breed them into your own breeding strain and call those royal or some other, more fanciful name. Some people are impressed by that. Me, not so much.

 

[neutrino]

...I've also seen some shops call gold edged green terrors "royal" and white edged standard... all somewhat arbitrary imo.

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

Gold and Silver Saums. or orange and white.
They used to call the orange one the false GT lol

 

[Athletic_Amph]

They used to call the orange one the false GT lol

A lot of people still do lol many believed the original "Green Terror" described was A. Stalsbergi, and the debate continues on a daily basis (i'll admit, I used to be one of those guys who would correct people when they labeled Rivs as GTs )
but I've completely given up on that uphill battle lol a common name is more sought after or interesting than the latin name to many of the hobbyists today... which is why I just label mine as Ecuadorian GTs or Peruvian GTs to distinguish between Rivs and Stalsbergis

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

which are from Ecuador?

 

[Athletic_Amph]

which are from Ecuador?

Rivulatus are from Ecuador and Stalsbergis are from Peru
... as much as I love the Rivs, and absolutely love my white seamed Riv, I find the Stalsbergis much more attractive in appearance

 

[DarylMac]

That said, wild caught GT have long body or white saum which is low quality according to Asian standards, but irrelevant as wild fish are not made for grading.

Not all wild caught GT's have a white seam. Orange & white seamed Rivs are often collected in same location. Also, I'm not even sure a white seam assures you the fish is wild caught as either orange or white seamed Rivs can sire white seamed fry.

 

[neutrino]

The last couple of posts are pretty accurate. So many people are confused on the whole subject. Both gold and white edged rivulatus (Ecuador) green terrors can be found in the wild and both have been in the hobby for years.

The basic order is: White edged rivulatus (Ecuador) showed up in the hobby first in the 1970s. Soon, also 1970s, came wild collected gold edged rivulatus. Meanwhile there were also photos of what are now stalsbergi circulating. 1982-- a German article calls what we now call stalsbergi (Peru) 'the green terror that isn't', being a third fish different from the fish originally named green terrors (the Ecuador white and gold edged fish). Reference: Here-- article by Wayne Leibel, biologist and cichlid expert who has written more than one article to clear up the confusion.

One reason so many have it wrong is at one time stalsbergi was considered to the true rivulatus-- not the same thing as the true green terror. In fact, some older books and articles (some of which I have or had) have photos of the Peruvian fish (stalsbergi) captioned as the "true rivulatus" and from this a number of hobbyists concluded and spread the idea it was also the true green terror (which, based on my books, I also thought years ago). BUT-- the Peruvian fish turned out not to be rivulatus, so it's been named stalsbergi. The Ecuador fish is rivulatus.

There's also another similar, reportedly slightly smaller, fish from Ecuador: Andinoacara blombergi.

 

[DarylMac]

What an awesome article neutrino. Thank you for sharing.