Polyterus In A Book

[§tudz]

Hi,
I bought this book last week:
'Dr Axelrod's Mini Atals of Freshwater Aquarium fishes' (ISBN: 0-86622-385-1)

and I was looking over the Polyterus' that are described in it.

Poly. Ornatipinnis
Poly. Palmas
Poly. Congicus

The book is the 2004 edition, just for some added info.

Right onto my query, does anyone else have this book? as I have a problem with it the fish shown as Congicus, IMO, looks like a senegalus sengalus, not a Congicus. If you have the book the page is 604.

From what I've seen on the net a congicus has a head shape more like a pit viper (snake) than any of the other Poly's.

Am I wrong? or has this book pasted the wrong picture in for the wrong fish, as I know it can be done as they have done is for a another fish which I know is wrong lol.

Many Thanks,

 

[jayjay]

i just had a look, but i'm no way able to define what it is lol, i'm not the best when it comes to birchir.

just to add i never knew they liked the pH so high?

 

[§tudz]

my water is about PH 7-6.6

and my senegalus is fine

As normal with stuff like that there is a lot of mis-information about fishes.

For example the size for some of the plecs are wrong, but then there are a lot of arguments about sizes,

trying putting polyterus sengalus and polyterus congicus into the image search in google, you get a lot that come up that aren't what they say.

one web site has, Delhezi, Ornate and a few others all labeled as congicus lol.

 

[sharp tooth]

polypeterus congius dose look like a senagalus.

its polypeterus endlicheri congius (spelling sorry) that has the "viper" type head

 

[§tudz]

polypeterus congius dose look like a senagalus.

its polypeterus endlicheri congius (spelling sorry) that has the "viper" type head

right, well I can't find ANY images of a polyterus congicus only the endlicheri, and the senegalus in the book looks like every senegalus I've seen

 

[Fruitbat]

I don't have the book that you're referring to so I can't help with their apparent mis-identification.

However...I can help with the systematics issue:

Polypterus endlicheri congicus is indeed the most widely-accepted scientific name. Only Frank Schafer in the Aqualog Polypterus book elevates this fish to the full species level (Polypterus congicus)...a move that I don't personally agree with. Whether it is Polypterus endlicheri congicus or Polypterus congicus, it looks very little like Polypterus senegalus other than that the two are bichirs.

Polypterus endlicheri congicus is one of the 'lower jaw' bichirs...that is...the lower jaw is generally longer than the upper jaw. It is likely the largest of all bichirs, reaching 97cm in length.

Polypterus senegalus is one of the 'upper jaw' bichirs...that is...the upper jaw is as long or slightly longer than the lower jaw. It is one of the smaller species of bichir.

Polypterus endlicheri congicus (juvenile):

Polypterus senegalus

Hope this helps,

-Joe

 

[jayjay]

well by those pics it looks look a senegal to me

 

[§tudz]

well by those pics it looks look a senegal to me

you see what I mean now, the fish is a senegalus not a congicus. its baffles me how someone who discovered many breeds of fish which include the cardinal tetra and the corydora axelrodi could make such a mistake.

 

[beblondie]

It can be simply the editor messed up,the printer messed up -Anne