Shipments containing juveniles of silver dollars or pacus are always surprise packages. The juvenile coloration of many species is simply unknown and juveniles look totally different than the adults. So we can only guess that in our current case the fish from Venezuela may belong to the species Myleus torquatus.
The smallest babies, about 1.5-2 cm long, are very dark colored and have a light blaze on the forehead. They float through the water without much move and imitate a dead leaf. This can make the keeper pretty nervous, but is the normal behaviour. When the fish are a bit larger, 3-4 cm, they become lighter in basic colour and the blaze vanishes. A diffuse light band over the nape appears and an individually differing pattern of spots and stripes appears. The behaviour differs now, too: the fish become active swimmers and form schools with conspecifics.
If our new arrivals really belong to M. torquatus the adult fish will become about 20-25 cm long with a silvery basic colour, yellow fins and – this is species-specific for M. torquatus – a broad black band that borders the caudal fin. We will keep some specimens to see what will become of them. We are really curious for that!
For our customers: the fish have code 270630 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
