Shot of G. ctenocephalus

[The Kapenta Kid]

Finally got a halfway-decent shot of this little guy. He is small, very active, and hard to pin down.

[Graeme Robson]

Nice!! I know how hard it is to capture pictures of these.

[mikev]

Nice fish, but it is G.ocellatus


Interesting that your guy is active. Mine shares the tank with a group of G. ctenocephalus and G.ridens and he is the least active of all... started as the most active, chased them around, but now tries to be as far as possible form the others.

[The Kapenta Kid]

Whatever you say
It was billed in an LFS as B. kweichowensis which it clearly wasn't. I bought two of which one has apparently gone to loach heaven. Just looking at the pics here and elsewhere I figgered it should be G. cteno.
It was very reticent at first, for a week or two, but now it is extremely active.

[mikev]

LOL descriptions are incorrect, check fishbase.org description (link above) [Thanks to Jim for letting me know the truth originally].

On my end, it started with him being the most active, followed by Ridens' and the Cteno's. After two weeks it reversed, Cteno's are the ones that took over the best stones, and the Ocellatus spends almost all the time on the glass, in a remote corner.

[Jim Powers]

Nice gastro. They are very cool fish.
At the time the species index was put together, many of the gastromyzons were incorrectly identified. This was also the case with just about all the literature at the time . In the last year, the id's have been straightened out and what we thought was G. punctalatus, is actually G. ctenocephalus. What we thought was G. ctenocephalus, is, in fact, G. ocellatus. And, what we thought was G. ridens, is actually G. stellatus.
Plans are to bring the species index up to date in the not too distant future.

[The Kapenta Kid]

Yep, I looked at Fishbase but they did not appear to have a pic. For me a pic is worth 1,000 words, to coin a phrase
I'm not too hung up on wherever the little bugger fits into the grand Linnean scheme of things, but it's always nice to know when you are introducing him to others.

[The Kapenta Kid]

At the time the species index was put together, many of the gastromyzons were incorrectly identified. This was also the case with just about all the literature at the time .

Thanks, that makes sense.
In fact I told a lie, not deliberately .
The fish pictured here was indeed labelled G punctulatus in the store as you remind me.
I re-identified it as G cteno according to pics here. Now it is maybe something else again!
'You have to keep running very fast here just to stay where you are said the Red Queen.'

[Jim Powers]

Welcome to the confusing world of hillstreams!
Many species have been, or continue to be, misidentified in most publications and in pet stores.
Fortunately, some of this has been cleared up in the last few years.

[mikev]

At the time the species index was put together, many of the gastromyzons were incorrectly identified. This was also the case with just about all the literature at the time .

Thanks, that makes sense.
In fact I told a lie, not deliberately .
The fish pictured here was indeed labelled G punctulatus in the store as you remind me.

This part is simple. Gastro imports tend to be labelled as
Borneo Sucker / Gastromyzon Punctulatus
regardless of which species are actually included. It seems that G.Cteno is the main component, with at least two "contaminants": Ridens and Ocellatus.

And, what we thought was G. ridens, is actually G. stellatus.

Now, you are getting me worried . Do I have Ridens or Stellatus? I think mine are honest Ridens....

[Jim Powers]

I have the Borneo Sucker book by Dr. Tan Heok Hui and according to him what I have and what others have had (and posted pics of) are definately stellatus.

[mikev]

<<<groans>>>

I'll have to find the book...
Anything you could summaraize per chance on G.Ridens vs G.Stellatus?

thanks....

[Jim Powers]

Ridens and stellatus are both part of the ridens group of gastromyzons, which also includes zebrinus (which appears to be the unknown gastro Martin has photos of). Ridens is distinguished from stellatus and zebrinus by having a rounded snout versus a truncated one in the other two species. Ridens also has less spots (or none at all) in the pickled specimens. Live specimens have not been photographed.
The real clincher, to me, other than the pic of stellatus which is a dead ringer for my fish, is the fact that they are found with ctenocephalus and ocellatus while ridens is not. Zebrinus is found with ctenocephalus and Homoloptera orthogoniata.
Imagine, finding a shipment with the later three species!!! That would be a dream tank in the making.

[mikev]

Thanks a lot!

From what you are saying it seems that there are two habitats with different mixes, possibly corresponding to different geographical areas, and most(all?) collection is done in the first type of habitat: cteno+ocellatus+stellatus.

Let me just make sure that the below is not a typo:

Zebrinus is found with ctenocephalus and Homoloptera orthogoniata.

so ctenos (the most common type) appear in the 2nd habitat too?

That would be a dream tank in the making.

oh sure! but for a moment my dreams are limited to a few more ocellatus and chenis to resolve the "singles" here.

which appears to be the unknown gastro Martin has photos of

you know which one? Martin posted more than one ridens-group photo.

[Jim Powers]

Check out the pics on this thread from petfrd site.
The top gastro pics from Martin are probably stellatus and the bottom more striped fish is most likely zebrinus.
http://www.petfrd.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19043

And, yes, according to Dr. Tan, ctenos are found in both habitats.