Maelys the flash zebra catfish (Brachyplatystoma juruense) growout thread

jaws7777

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My pleasure! Glad I could be of help!

For now, I don't have this jur with any other cars. He shares a 150 with a young black arowana.

I'm hoping to do a writeup on Brachyplatystoma soon. :)



Omg Viktor! That's incredible! I suspect that you have all three versions of juruense patterning in that group. That oddball is absolutely incredible. I am eagerly awaiting to see this group of fish grown out in a couple of years, it could easily prove my hypothesis. All if these fish came from the same collection, correct?

Also, this video strongly encourages me to test the soft water hypothesis! Your soft water jurs have much better patterning than anything I've seen anywhere else. Correlation doesn't always imply causation, but it sure is a hell of a starting point for research!

Also, fwiw, these are representative of what I consider to be the three morphs of juruense. I call mosaic juruense, tiger juruense and straight juruense. Honestly, we may need a fourth category for "oddballs" for fish like yours Viktor! Pic courtesy of Ray of Amazing Fish.

View attachment 1258888
Im not sure where you made the comment about juru being cool in the way you never know how they are going to mature and after reading soo many threads about them the past few day i can absolutely see what you mean and look forward to seeing it first hand
 

thebiggerthebetter

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C Chicxulub I hope to help you in any way I can. Taking on Brachies in any kind of depth is a humongous and thankless task. I admire your drive.

CX: All if these fish came from the same collection, correct?
TBTB: All I know they came in one box. I can ask snookn21 if it was Colombia or Peru. I can ask further questions but I think the availability and reliability of answers would haunt us.

CX: ... "oddballs" ...
TBTB: Yeah, the extra category, aka the exceptions, is an Achilles heel of every model.

We really need necrocanis necrocanis and his obsession with building catfish skeletons. I imagine he'd contribute handsomely to your work, if he built and studied potential differences of your 3 jur types. Going only by looks can be quite limiting. Still, a valid starting point for any researcher, no matter how amateur... but in your case this may spill into professional / academic?
 

Chicxulub

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I'd love to see necro back. I haven't seen hide nor hair of him in like two years. I hope he's ok. I know he did a LOT of the leg work that I need to do on Brachyplatystoma with Dr. Lundberg a few years ago. I really wish he was here to bounce ideas off of. :(

The stuff that I do here definitely crosses the line into the academic realm. Most of the work I've shared on this site I did when I was still in school. I now work as a fisheries biologist, which is honestly why I have a bit harder of a time now finding the motivation to do what is basically a research paper in my spare time lol. The taxonomy of the genus seems fairly well settled at this point though, so I don't expect it to difficult to write. The only challenge that I foresee is convincing everyone that "flash zebra" is just a marketing gimmick lol.
 
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T1KARMANN

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Yes, prettier jurs tend to be called flash zebras. However, Brachyplatystoma juruense has a pretty wildly varying assortment of patterns and colors, but they are still only one type of fish. Fish called flash zebras are still Brachyplatystoma juruense, but ones that people think look nice. The yellow ones and the normal looking ones can be caught side by side in the exact same waters. All jurs tend to get yellower and more boldly patterned as they get larger. The second fish posted above is representative of the "normal" juruense with boring straight stripes when it grows to adulthood.

There isn't even anything approaching a consensus in this community as to what constitutes a FZ versus a jur, because they're the exact same fish lol. When this was discussed ad nauseum a few years ago, there were many instances of person A showing an example of a normal jur, and person B would state that they felt that said fish was actually a FZ, and vice versa.

Flash zebras don't exist. They're just jurs. All of these fish are the same thing, just at different places on a spectrum of the possible. Flash zebra is a marketing ploy, plain and simple. All jurs get better patterning and coloration when they grow (note that there are never juvenile flash zebras, only gorgeous adults. Why is that?)

I intend to prove this over the next year or two.

If this is the case why are there a big price difference between juruense and flash zebra
I have seen lists with both types Same size
 

T1KARMANN

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My pleasure! Glad I could be of help!

For now, I don't have this jur with any other cars. He shares a 150 with a young black arowana.

I'm hoping to do a writeup on Brachyplatystoma soon. :)



Omg Viktor! That's incredible! I suspect that you have all three versions of juruense patterning in that group. That oddball is absolutely incredible. I am eagerly awaiting to see this group of fish grown out in a couple of years, it could easily prove my hypothesis. All if these fish came from the same collection, correct?

Also, this video strongly encourages me to test the soft water hypothesis! Your soft water jurs have much better patterning than anything I've seen anywhere else. Correlation doesn't always imply causation, but it sure is a hell of a starting point for research!

Also, fwiw, these are representative of what I consider to be the three morphs of juruense. I call mosaic juruense, tiger juruense and straight juruense. Honestly, we may need a fourth category for "oddballs" for fish like yours Viktor! Pic courtesy of Ray of Amazing Fish.

View attachment 1258888


I think the bottom picture is the stripe patience that is flash zebra if you look they are the same as the real nice one I posted before
 

Hendre

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If this is the case why are there a big price difference between juruense and flash zebra
I have seen lists with both types Same size
What's the difference like?
 

jaws7777

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Not that i know from experience but it could be that the price difference is just a way to charge/make extra $$$

With polys sometimes the pattern alone is the reason why theres a price difference between two fish of the same species. Albino oscars used to cost mpre than reg o's (maybe a bad example lol)
 
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Yellowcat

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I've kept juruense cats in the past, the usual light/dark brown coloration with varied patterns among them. I'm inclined to agree that all 'flash zebra' are also just versions of juruense, not a separate species. Basic patterns vary as with Viktor's fish, as they also do with tigrinus cats, developing with time. I haven't done as much research as some here have but I've seen anecdotal reports several times that state that the bright gold/yellow coloration is a unique trait found in specimens collected in the Nanay River in Peru. Some I've seen on the inter webs with the 'flash' colors that were known to have come from there. This suggests that if true, it could be a genetic trait that evolved in that river system over time. Curious to know if others with 'flash zebras' know of their collection point or at least what country and if so, where? As to marketing, hard to know if an exporter/importer has some special knowledge to know what they have, other than a river system where collected or other info they may have to assume that the juveniles will turn out to have 'flash' colors later on. Due to rarity and high prices they command, some importers will bring in large specimens already showing that great coloration. There will always be some sellers who call common juru's 'flash zebra' out of ignorance or greed? I would think that if the bright colors were a result of environment or diet someone would have figured out how to turn a common on into a 'flash'...
 

moe214

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I would think that if the bright colors were a result of environment or diet someone would have figured out how to turn a common on into a 'flash'...
One would think, but I've not seen or read of anyone attempting it and even if it was a failure it's something to be reported but it hasn't been. Maybe it's something chicx has planned to do, kind of like he did with his gatf project, with all this talk of writing up on them :). But I believe genetics has a part of it, but also the normal environment and diet that effects most fish surely may have an effect as well.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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Individual mug shots of my 9 current specimen and a full tank shot - they like perching at all levels, the tank looks like a chicken coup:

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