Whiptail Identification

[Baccus]

I know its a long shot, but  I am hoping somebody might be able to identify this lovely female whiptail. I know many can readily cross breed, and I am hoping she is not some hybrid, but I do suspect that she is some type of Sturisoma. I ultimately want to get her a mate, but cant until I am pretty certain of her species.

Full Body side on


Full body from above


Close up of tail


Close up of midsection


Close up of mouth


Sorry I don't have any pictures of her underside, she rarely is out in the open let alone stuck on the front glass.

 

[ricbea]

sorry, I can't help, just wanted to say what a beautiful fish and thanks for sharing some great pictures.

 
Richard.

 

[Baccus]

Thanks, she is a lovely fish and very peaceful towards even the shrimp.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Beautiful little whiptail, truly stunning. As you know, I am areal fan of whiptails now
 
First thought to what this could potentially be was a Royal Whiptail Farowella - Sturisoma panamense, but hmm.....
 
Then I thought could it be along the lines of a male Real Royal Farlowella - Sturisoma festivum which is the nearest match imho.
 
http/www.planetcatfish.com/common/image.php?image_id=17709

 

[Baccus]

That does seem a very close match. The trouble will also be finding a male that is correctly named and not just well it came in with a group of this type of whiptail so it must be that. Thankfully in one regard we don't tend to get wild caught fish over here, but what does make it through strict quarantine can still be misidentified and what is already here can have hybridised.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Indeed, very true, this is one of the difficulties of whiptails, there are so many varieties of them and a lot of them are misidentified sadly.
 
Having said that, finding the closest match or ideally the same species should not be too much of an issues (famous last words!)
 
Looks like a little more research and asking around is your best bet for now. Very best of luck with that beautiful whiptail.

 

[Baccus]

I will see about contacting an online fish selling site that sometimes has various whiptails for sale, I am just not so sure on how accurate they are on identification, after all they tend to have Borneo Suckers listed under the heading Catfish instead of the correct Loaches and a native species of glass shrimp (scientifically named correctly) but common named Cherry Shrimp which is an entirely different species.