Wild caught Pseudoplatystoma sp.

[HELIOX]

Hi Jonathan.

I see both punctifers and tigrinums in your photos
We also do get wild TSNs available from time to time when they are in season.
My 2x experiences with wild TSN shipments have contained both Tigrinum and Punctifer... of course this is a dice roll...

I have raised 2x batches in total since 2017 up to today.
When they do come in, they are usually small around 1-2 inch... At this size it is very difficult to tell them apart. The shovel shape starts to become slightly evident once they hit 5 inches... and becomes more obvious as they grow.

My observations below are consistent with 2 batches.

Tigrinums are more outgoing and confident. My second batch would beg for food, coming up to greet me to see if Ive got food.

Punctifers are more shy. If I placed hides, the punctifers would use it but the Tigrinums would usually be swimming openly.

Tigrinums grow faster than Punctifers.... could be due to genetics or due to them being not shy during feeding. It would be a good experiment to raise them separately to get objective results.

I will place vids of the 2 batches

(2017) Turned out only 1 tigrinum, 3 punctifer
(2019) Turned out only 1 punctifer, 3 tigrinum

Ive always gotten these in batches of 10... and some were lost in the distributor or in my tank.

The vids can help show the visual differences...

1. Shovel Shape
2. Markings on head
3. Bar loops / Crossback bars

And maybe you guys can see or discover some other differences Have fun

There is also a corruscans on the first vid, just disregard it to keep in topic.

 

[HELIOX]

Oh and just to add....

I have not seen any split fins when growing out punctifers together in a small tub.

Growing out tigrinums together requires a big space... they are more aggressive in feeding and sometimes can grab one of their buddies by mistake. So you will see some damage on them from the 2nd batch video above. Surprisingly, the punctifer is undamaged living with the 3 tigrinums. So it can also be aggression to conspecifics.

I will know more when I get a 3rd batch into a big tank.

I did not push for a 3rd batch of wild TSN this year due to space constraints... I think a box is like 40-50pc.

And like I said is a dice roll what you get. I dont care much for the punctifers and am really interested in the Tigrinums.

In 2019 - the first batch was replaced by the second batch since they were growing too fast and these grow outs are suppose to go into a big tank whose construction got delayed by the pandemic....

I just wanted to have tigrinums available to put in my tank once construction is done... hence the second batch.