yeah as far as i know toyin's the only one with the koliba in the US. oh and Koliba is a river in Guinea. toyin imported the first one last summer, so just about a year ago.
as for what exactly are they, i suppose we (hobbyists) could only make educated guess. Scientists would be the ones who are in the best position to study them on a scientific basis. So for most of us, it comes down to 'preference' and what you think the fish is to a certain extent. P. bichir lapradei 'Koliba', or P. bichir ssp. 'Koliba', or simply P. sp. 'Koliba' would all be ok in a sense until the fish is scientifically studied/described.
as far as finlets count, theres no difference between the regular nigerian lap, guinea lap or the koliba. i wouldn't expect the scale count to be much different either, although i've never actually counted. and of course all three fish darken and lighten up with time/mood/substrate very much so.
if you erase the color and patterns, it would be difficult to tell the three apart, although it seems the head is slightly different, esp. between the two guinea fish and the nigeria fish. But again this is only based on limited observation. i would say the two guinea fish (guinea lap and koliba) look closer to each other than either one is to the nigerian lap.
having said all that, the three fish have very distinct characteristic patterns. for the koliba, like Keeper said, those bright white lines cutting across the side of the body are very distinct, extending almost the length of the body and splitting up its vertical markings, and of course its markings are distinct as well. imo its the best looking of the three.
as for what exactly are they, i suppose we (hobbyists) could only make educated guess. Scientists would be the ones who are in the best position to study them on a scientific basis. So for most of us, it comes down to 'preference' and what you think the fish is to a certain extent. P. bichir lapradei 'Koliba', or P. bichir ssp. 'Koliba', or simply P. sp. 'Koliba' would all be ok in a sense until the fish is scientifically studied/described.
as far as finlets count, theres no difference between the regular nigerian lap, guinea lap or the koliba. i wouldn't expect the scale count to be much different either, although i've never actually counted. and of course all three fish darken and lighten up with time/mood/substrate very much so.
if you erase the color and patterns, it would be difficult to tell the three apart, although it seems the head is slightly different, esp. between the two guinea fish and the nigeria fish. But again this is only based on limited observation. i would say the two guinea fish (guinea lap and koliba) look closer to each other than either one is to the nigerian lap.
having said all that, the three fish have very distinct characteristic patterns. for the koliba, like Keeper said, those bright white lines cutting across the side of the body are very distinct, extending almost the length of the body and splitting up its vertical markings, and of course its markings are distinct as well. imo its the best looking of the three.
