t.espei?

@essjay don't know if you remember, I was telling you about my dad's school of harlequin rasboras, and that one stuck out as being different, and you'd mentioned t.espei and another species that are similar, and sometimes get mixed up with harlequins? Got a photo of the odd one out, and I'm pretty convinced it's a t.espei, while the others are actual harlequins. Noticed that he doesn't seem to hang with the harlequins either, so not sure what to do, since I don't know how old the school is. Was planning to let the school die out since they don't suit this water.

Anyone able to confirm the ID for me please?

And one of the harlequins:

I think that's espei, way nicer than the regular Harlequin

Super hard to find!

Nice looking fish, looks like a small fish

They are smaller than the Harlequin, much better colour and hardier

I like small fish like that, they would go well with my ember tetras.

Yes, Espei are beautiful.

I introduced them to my colleague recently and we went to the fish store to buy the fish.
The fish is nice and they are very good schooling fish.

That’s definitely a Lambchop Rasbora (Trigonostigma espei) I’ve had them before, real nice colourful wee fish and a great addition to any tank.

Note they have darker copper colouration, the black tail marking is shaped like a bit like a lambchop, (hence their common name) and if you see the two photos below which I’ve taken from the SF website, you should see that the heteromorpha black tail marking is more of a triangular shape and also covers more of the tail half of the fish.

Espei are smaller than the usual harlequins.
The espei specie are much nicer imho.

They do good in big groups as I had 15 in my tank and not skittish. Had them with about 15 CPDs and both get on really well.

Trigonostigma espei


Trigonostigma heteromorpha





Edit- forgot to mention there were 6 male endlers and loads of RCS as well in the same tank, 3 foot long tank with loads of plants. No problems at all.

Ch4rlie said:

That’s definitely a Lambchop Rasbora (Trigonostigma espei) I’ve had them before, real nice colourful wee fish and a great addition to any tank.

Note they have darker copper colouration, the black tail marking is shaped like a bit like a lambchop, (hence their common name) and if you see the two photos below which I’ve taken from the SF website, you should see that the heteromorpha black tail marking is more of a triangular shape and also covers more of the tail half of the fish.

Espei are smaller than the usual harlequins.
The espei specie are much nicer imho.

They do good in big groups as I had 15 in my tank and not skittish. Had them with about 15 CPDs and both get on really well.

Trigonostigma espei
View attachment 118842

Trigonostigma heteromorpha
View attachment 118843

Trigonostigma espei – Lambchop Rasbora — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Trigonostigma heteromorpha – Harlequin (Rasbora heteromorpha) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Edit- forgot to mention there were 6 male endlers and loads of RCS as well in the same tank, 3 foot long tank with loads of plants. No problems at all.

Click to expand...

The sad thing is that this one was an accidental buy, he bought what he thought was a school of harlequins, but there's this one espei that was mixed up with them. I thought he stuck out, but the penny only dropped when I saw @essjay talking about the lampchop and the copper rasbora sometimes being mis sold as harlequins. So this little guy has been the only one of his kind in there for a while

Will see if my LFS ever gets these in, and if he does, donate this one to go with the others, so he's not alone anymore.

Yes, those are the fish I have. They were sold as T. hengeli but I soon realised they were T. espei. The shop did have all three Trigonostigmas in stock they just labelled the tanks wrong.

For those UK members, they are listed as copper rasboras on Maidenhead Aquatics website so they should be able to get them in (though that could be difficult during Covid19). I saw them there years ago when I was looking for espeis, but they told me then they were hengeli.

essjay said:

Yes, those are the fish I have. They were sold as T. hengeli but I soon realised they were T. espei. The shop did have all three Trigonostigmas in stock they just labelled the tanks wrong.

For those UK members, they are listed as copper rasboras on Maidenhead Aquatics website so they should be able to get them in (though that could be difficult during Covid19). I saw them there years ago when I was looking for espeis, but they told me then they were hengeli.

Click to expand...

Do you think I should get some more espei's to keep him company? If I can find any? I have no idea of when dad bought this school of 'harlequins' containing the one t.espei, so I don't know age. My LFS might accept him to go with others if he had any, he knows I wouldn't give him sick fish, but I hadn't planned to get any more soft water fish for this nightmare tank, the water is too hard and I'm struggling to get the stocking down as it is. But I doubt MA would accept random fish from members of the public.

In brief, it's a nightmare tank my elderly father put together, so mix of random hard and soft water fish. I had planned to let the remains of the tetra, rasbora etc die out gradually since most are elderly or unknown age and just not replace them, but I feel bad for this single espei who doesn't school with the harlequins, so is always alone, and always has been But, I don't want to condemn more young rasbora to live in overstocked tank with wrong water either.

Rock, hard place.