Aplocheilus panchax Bangkok F1 on Aquabid

[ruyle]

Jian Yang, Nonn claims he's never seen this fish. The fish offered by Tim
has an impressive caudal fin along with the pink-red scales, doesn't look
much like Nonn's pictures here.

Hey, I guess we'll have to see, huh?

[stormhawk]

Bill, Nonn did mention about the population in the Mahachai area that have orange fins with black edging. Its almost the same description as the one in Tim's picture on AquaBid. That fish in the picture also has black edging on the fins. The Mahachai swamp is also home to a a Betta species (Betta sp. "Mahachai") that may have been the "anabantoid" Tim mentioned in the auction ad.

Aplocheilus panchax as you've never seen them. Collected on an Anabantoid collecting trip outside Bangkok. - From Tim's auction.

We have Aplocheilus panchax native to Singapore but they're nowhere as colourful as the one in Tim's picture. Maybe I should go catch some..

[TyroneGenade]

For those interested this is the reply I got from Tony P.:

these look like nothing like the fish from the Mahachai area - I collected a few and there was no yellow in the caudal, just white......so this is a variant from somewhere in Thailand perhaps but not from around the places we collected. I also collected Aplo. panchax with Armitage, Yong and Brown in Bangka and that was a beautiful strain but similar to the one in Thailand.....all the wild fish have lots of red, blue and white ! I wonder who the collector is or if this is a commercial shipment - that happens too you know and no one likes to say that !

Maybe we are looking at a hybrid between the populations. The second picture Nonn shows has similar body colour. Maybe they were accidently crossed out with the orange finned form?

Nonn are there any panchax populations between the Mahachai and the ones in the south as shown in the picture?

tt4n

[Svein]

I know from my work with Bettas for several years, that a lot of hybrids living in the wild in Thailand, and this fish can be a hybrid. I don't say it is a hybrid, but it can.

Regards
Svein

[TyroneGenade]

Hello

Go have a look at: http://www.fishbreeding.dk/frame.htm...lish.html~Main.

The rounded anal fin in Tim's picture suggests to me "girl" as well now that I look at it. The fish in the link above simply looks like a duller male version of Tim's fish. With supplemental feeding with products like NutraRose it may be possible to beef up the fish pictured in the link above.

A possible solution to the mystery? You tell me...

[stormhawk]

The picture by Tonny Brandt Andersen on the PAN page certainly shows something similar. I agree that with proper feeding of colour foods one may obtain a fish similar in spectacular colouration like the one in Tim's picture. He does sell some dried food containing astaxanthin which he has advertised on his West African site.

Using Epiplatys as a guide, I think the shape of the pelvic fins may help to sex these species as well. Male Epiplatys have longer and pointed tipped pelvic fins in comparison with the females. This trait is also found on several Aplocheilus-type SAAs like Trigonectes.

[TyroneGenade]

Hello all

Well, I got word from Tim and send this picture. I'm still pressing him for more info...

[img][500:227]http://tgenade.freeshell.org/pictures/thaipan.jpg[/img]

All will be revealed in the next exciting episode of "Where's that panchax from?"

[ruyle]

Humm, another red x picture, whuh happen? I can still see it when I click
on it....also wonder what happened to the nice pink-red in the flanks. Still a very pretty fish! Maybe it was embarrassed in Tim's first picture

Keep us posted, Tyrone!

[whuntley]

From my communications with Tim, the color bleaches out in bright light. That last pic was an illustration. It also appears to be a male. Baensch mentions that the orange in the females is the primary sex difference.

Wright