Syno polli revisited

Dave Rinaldo · Post by **Dave Rinaldo** » 10 May 2006, 04:55

Opinions on ID please!!

Last thread

toddnbecka · Post by **toddnbecka** » 10 May 2006, 07:56

OOh, I know,

it's a CATFISH

Probably an undescribed species, or else a hybrid between a petricola and a giraffe-nose

Sorry, I couldn't resist

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 10 May 2006, 09:35

I still stand by my definition of petricola or -most likely- an unknown species of the petricola-polli-dhonti-tanganicae-group.

I dunno for sure, but I have a strong hunch that these species (and several undescribed closely related species like the "petricola Dwarf", "Giant petricola Tanzania", "polli White Zambia" etc) are smack in the middle of a "species flock" and evolving into several forms right as we speak.

wich leads us to a lot of "intermediate forms" popping up in the trade. I've seen at least 3 "different petricola-lookalikes" and one "dwarf dhonti" (!) popping up in a shipments of wildcaught true polli's from Zambia (!)

but still it's much closer to petricola than to polli. even if I forget the coloration, the bodyshape is slim, the fins have the "petricola shape" (polli has different fins) and the upper lip points down (in polli it points almost straight forward, hence the teeth are always visible).
The humeral is also more petricola than polli.

offtopic: lol! I got 1234 posts

Post by **Dinyar** » 10 May 2006, 15:57

I agree with all the points made by Sid in his post above. At least in my view, S polli shows a fair amount of variation but is still a clearly defined species. "S petricola", on the other hand, seems to be a catch-all for many similar but distinct species.