Oddball Or Not ?

[Bloo]

I might be completely off-track here, but it sure looked like an odd-ball to me:
anyway, I went into my lfs today and they had some fish that looked "vaguely" like CAE's (but more "stout"). The odd thing is, they had some odd "horn" type thing from the head. A bit like a rhino or perhaps unicorn (erm, that's my best description)

What are they ? ?

 

[grumpymole]

Did it look anything like this? Hornflower Fish

 

[Bloo]

Did it look anything like this? Hornflower Fish

nice try but if you have any idea what a CAE looks like, then that would be a "no".

 

[grumpymole]

Didnt read the CAE part of your message propaly, sorry.
so after an extensive gooogle session i can find nothing!
soz once again

 

[Fish_Mike]

Farlowella?

 

[Bloo]

Farlowella?

Nope - not at all.

Imagine a stout beefed up CAE with a single big fat fleshy "bristle" coming out between it's eyes - well just above his eyes. Sort of his "forehead".
Sounds odd, but that's what I (think) saw

 

[Ethos]

Farlowella?

Little off topic, but I think that fish is sweet...

 

[Isis_Nebthet]

elephant nose ??

 

[Bloo]

Thanks Isis, but not that either

Perhaps I should just go back tomorrow and check what they are to satisfy my curiosity !

 

[Gazoo]

"The odd thing is, they had some odd "horn" type thing from the head. A bit like a rhino..."

Did it look like this?

 

[RandomWiktor]

Oooh Oooh! Spiney Headed Hillstream Loach?
Link
Picture:

(look at the one in the back)

edit: Oh wait, darn. They have two spines. Too bad.

 

[funkybodal]

Garra?

link removed due to security issue

 

[hellohefalump]

I think I may have seen something matching that description in 'interesting imports' in Practical Fishkeeping mag, a couple of months ago.

 

[Bloo]

"The odd thing is, they had some odd "horn" type thing from the head. A bit like a rhino..."

Did it look like this?

lol very funny, but if the horney bit was a bit shorter and more horizontal it would actually be quite a good resemblance !

 

[Bloo]

Garra?

link removed due to security issue

I think I may have seen something matching that description in 'interesting imports' in Practical Fishkeeping mag, a couple of months ago.

Well, I had to go back today to satisfy my curiosity and make sure I wasn't hallucinating ! Or just saw one deformed fish and somehow thought all the others were the same.

However....... I can now tell you all what is is : "Garra Bicornuta"

So Funky, you are absolutely right - it's a garra - but more specifically "bicornuta" (which sounds a bit like big horn, doesn't it ? ).

I took a few pics on my mobile phone and will try and figure out how to down/upload that tonight.

Unfortunately there is extremely little info on the web, and certainly no pics of the adults I saw.

At £15 they are *not* cheap, but they are certainly fairly rare from what I can see.

hellohefalump, you are also right, Wildwoods imported them two months ago According to this list of Asian Rarities.

This is just about the only info I can find on these fish.

This is what the younsters look like, but the larger ones had a very definite and very clear large "horn".