Heros sp. Atabapo shots

[Chromedome]

I have never bothered with "Severums" in the past, but this spring I had Rapps stick a pair of what he is calling Heros sp. "Atabapo" in a shipment I was getting. The pair has now spawned twice, and I have young coming up, but the question still is whether or not these are H. severus. I see some minor color differences, but I can now verify that they are mouthbrooders like H. severus, and the location, while geographically remote, is part of the Orinoco basin. Given the wide distribution of other Heros species, it is not unreasonable to suspect that this is a population of H. severus.

I'm looking for an expert analysis, and may be willing to provide specimens to the right person for verification. I believe the pair are wild caught fish, Jeff didn't specify when he shipped them.

For the rest of you, here's a couple of photos so you can see how interesting these fish are. Not sure why, but the male's picture ended up at the bottom of the group. Female is at the top, that was shortly after they got here and she was still a little rough from shipping.

[pitdogg2]

Very nice love the red eyes
I would say you have a very nice pair of Severums. Nice to see more coming to market than just the green and gold.:p

[Dean Hougen]

Well, I'm certainly no expert on Heros but I my first impression is that they are true H. severus. I'd keep the Atabapo name on them, however, until you have much more definite confirmation. If it later turns out that Atabapo is H. severus, everyone who had Atabapo will be able to put their information/fish in the H. severus column, as it were. However, if they get sold and traded around around as H. severus and they turn out to be a new species, the info/fish will be all jumbled up and difficult or impossible to sort out.


Dean