Hello all,
this is not a post about apistos, but I've exhausted every other resource I have at hand to find an answer to my question, and I know someone on this list can point me to somewhere I haven't thought to look. About two weeks ago, I acquired a mature pair of fish belonging to the Rasbora genus, in what I would describe as the heteromorpha complex (they look like harlequins). The main difference that I can distinguish between these fish and the harlequin Rasbora is that the black marking on this pair has "dissolved" into a rather amorphous blob, extending out across the better part of the body, behind the gill plate, from where the clearly-defined black mark would be on a harlequin. These fish have remarkable coloring, which includes the aforementioned purple-blue blob-like marking on the body, as well as a "flash" of color on the top of the head, just anterior to the mouth, that is very shiny and very, very intense. The male's "flash spot" is red, while the female is more gold. I would love to find more of these fish; they were someone's trade-ins at the LFS, and they couldn't ID these fish at the store. No mention is made of them in Baensch I or II, Axelrod's atlas, or any of the other assorted books I have at home. I can't find mention of them on the web (although it's tricky to find them without a species designation). The other species of "harlequin-like" Rasboras listed in the sources I've consulted do not match these fish. I seem to remember some mention of a fish whose black markings "dissolved" with age, and as these fish appear to be fully mature (~2-3 cm SL) I wonder if this could be an older pair of a fish belonging to a species whose markings are clear as juveniles. Does anyone have an inkling as to what they could be or where I might find more info on them?
Thanks,
Sarah LeGates