not what you want to see when the postman comes to your door

Stanzzzz7

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My dad had the gt's off me.He has wanted them for ages.i found it hard to part with them but the thorichthys won out in the end.I was dying to put them in the big tank.ive also added 3 melanura and my otapa swordtails. I also have loads of otapa sword fry growing on.They will be added when big enough.
 

adamsfishes

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My dad had the gt's off me.He has wanted them for ages.i found it hard to part with them but the thorichthys won out in the end.I was dying to put them in the big tank.ive also added 3 melanura and my otapa swordtails. I also have loads of otapa sword fry growing on.They will be added when big enough.
That sounds epic. The melanura won't eat the swords?

I really need my swords to help the mixtecos settle down. They are still really skittish. I'll bug the seller again, maybe send him a pic of my tank and see if he'll bump me up the list. :)
 

Stanzzzz7

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My thorichthys were a bit skittish until I covered the surface of the tank with plants.Your lotus should soon send up lots of big leaves that will make them feel more secure. The swordtails will also help a lot.
Not worried about the melanura eating the swords. I've kept them together before with no casualties. The veija are only about 2 inches,most of the swordtails will be fully grown well before the veija put on some size.
 

adamsfishes

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My thorichthys were a bit skittish until I covered the surface of the tank with plants.Your lotus should soon send up lots of big leaves that will make them feel more secure. The swordtails will also help a lot.
Not worried about the melanura eating the swords. I've kept them together before with no casualties. The veija are only about 2 inches,most of the swordtails will be fully grown well before the veija put on some size.
Is melanura the same as synspilum?
 

Stanzzzz7

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Yes,it is.
They were thought to be two separate species at one time.Turns out they were just regional variants of the same fish.
Melanura was the original type name,before synspilum. since more work has been done with these fish,melanura has become the species name,as it was years before. Synspilum is a pretty engraved name for the species and will probably be referred to as that by most hobbyists for years to come.
 

adamsfishes

Aimara
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Yes,it is.
They were thought to be two separate species at one time.Turns out they were just regional variants of the same fish.
Melanura was the original type name,before synspilum. since more work has been done with these fish,melanura has become the species name,as it was years before. Synspilum is a pretty engraved name for the species and will probably be referred to as that by most hobbyists for years to come.
On that note is it Paratheraps or Vieja? I thought Vieja was the old name. Veija synspilum to Paratheraps melanura is a complete name change. Also, the synspilum synspilus synspila name variants just add to the confusion.

But a rose by any name would smell as sweet, and these fish are beautiful whatever they are called.

PS. It's my thread I can hijack it if I want. :cool:
 

Stanzzzz7

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To my understanding, paratheraps was created for p,briedori. This fish is considered different enough from veija to have the paratheraps tag.
From the remaining veija species nomenclature is really a matter of opinion.
Without further dna analysis or deeper studies veija can be either,veija or paratheraps depending how the experts see the fish.
To me, except for briedori they are all veija.Briedori is the only one I see a significant difference in when comparing to the other veija species.
To make it simple,it's no more than a matter of opinion depending on which expert you ask.
Taxonomy is not always an exact science.
Hope this helps.
 

Stanzzzz7

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The other two odd ones out in the veija complex are argentia and hetrospilus.These two also differ in body shape to the other veija.
I believe argentia has become maskoheros argentia.It has a clearly different profile to melanura. Hetrospilus has a shorter more rounded profile.
 

adamsfishes

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Yeah, I don't know what the threshold is to be considered different enough to warrant a new genus vs simply being considered a different species (or even just a color variant).

When I look at the fish, I see Vieja synspilum. But as you say it should be Vieja melanura since that came first, just as Thorichthys maculipinnis is now preferred over ellioti.
 
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