PlanetCatfish.com

Habitat: Rio Magdalena at Ricaurte between Melgar and Giradot.

Cat-elog submission sent. I'll try to get some better photos.
-Shane

This is the real S. aureum (as opposed to S. festivum and S. panamense)...

Jools

This is the real deal. Evers and Seidel called it Sturisoma "Kolumbien" and theorized that it was S. aureum. However, they did not have exact collecting location info. I am trying to get some better photos.
-Shane

Hi!
A bit off topic but I compare these pic with the pic of Mallemalles pic of his Sturisoma sp and really don't look like this one. It should rule the S. aureum out for that one...
Cheers
Yann

Just came back from the exporters. To add to the confusion... they had a THIRD sp of Rio Magdalena Sturisoma. I am trying to do some homework and will talk to Ingo. Anyone aware of a third sp. of Sturisoma that has been described? I am also not willing to rule out that one could be Farlowella curtirostra as the Magdalena and Maracaibo Basin share many spp. I need to see the original description for Loricaria aurea. It apears that the photo above may be may be incorrectly identified now that a third sp. has entered the mix.
Not much new to report. Some Otocinclus macrospilus and a second Oto sp. and a strange Rineloricaria type (one specimen) that I am trying to ID. Nothing else coming in except loads of H. plecostomus from the llanos with some Ancistrus triradiatus and Cochliodon mixed in the shipments.
-Shane

Anyone aware of a third sp. of Sturisoma that has been described?

From that part of South America, there is also S. kneri and S. tenuirostre. The former name may not be a validly-published one.

Thanks for the leads HH. I have S. kneri listed from the Maracaibo Basin and S. tenuirostre from the llanos. I'll look for photos or something to help me along. S. kneri might be a candidate for the same ereason I mentioned F. curtirostra, although I checked that sp. and can now rule it out. Neither Sturisoma sp. is mentioned in "Peces del Catatumbo" BTW.
-Shane

Initial findings:
What we are calling S. "Colombia" in the Cat-eLog is probably the real S. panamense.
What we are calling S. panamense looks to be S. aureum (we'll have to tell Bruce.)
The sp. pictured above is one of the spp. HH mentioned or is undescribed.

On an unrelated note, I picked up a neat trick for IDing Otos. At the exporters, where there are thousand mixed together, just catch about 50 and put them in a small (20 gallon) tank. After about an hour they sort themselves out and stay in schools of the same sp. Does not ID them, but gives a pretty good idea of how many spp. you are dealing with. The exporters loved this.

Got a Colombian Grad student on his way over top the house looking for a project. Turns out that my personal library is the largest fish library in the country. I'll see if he is interested in doing a study of the Magdalena Sturisoma.
-Shane

The fish in question. Bad photos I know, and yes S. sp. C has ick thanks to our last power outage.

Sturisoma sp. A possibly S. panamense.



S. sp. B. This is a dwarf sp.



S. sp. C. Probably S. aureum



I am open to anyone's thoughts.
-Shane

Per e-mail with Ingo, we both agree that what we have lebelled S. panamense in the cat-eLog is Sturisoma sp. C or the real S. aureum. What we have labled Sturisoma "Colombia" is S. sp. A or S. panamense. The mystery remains the sp. that started the entire topic (the fish pictured at the beginning of the thread). Perhaps, for now, we should call it S. sp. "Magdalena dwarf." BTW, the exporter had about 200 Magdalena dwarf and they were being held at 18 C (that is like 66-67F!) and were all very happy and healthy. This fish could turn out to be S. knerii, but I do not have the original decription in order to make this determination.
-Shane

HI!

Interesting.... I remember that last year a 2 part article was written By Ingo about the correct Identification. I remember that basically all Sturisoma panamense found here in Europe are usually Sturisoma festivum

Regarding the distribution of Sturisoma panamense, it would be interesting to compare the population from Panama with the Colombian population.

I agree with the pic of Sturisoma sp being a Sturisoma panamense its rather low body has something similar
Cheers
Yann

Shane & Yann,

You now both have full ability to edit entries in the cat-elog, correct away!

If you need me to move pictues around, post another one in here with the id numbers of the pictures you need changed.

Jools