# taxonomy technical Q



## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

Frank would you happen to know what qualifies an individual to be classified as a subspecie?

would a ternetzi be scientifically qualified to be considered a subspecie?


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## Mr. Hannibal (Feb 21, 2003)

As far as i know Ternetzi is not considered a subspecie, in fact is not considered as a valid species name nor separate species, just another P. nattereri with different colour due to their location...i'm sure OPEFE's have the answer you're looking for...!


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## Mr. Hannibal (Feb 21, 2003)

I found it for you pal... (from OPEFE's)!...

SCIENCE

Fink and Zelditch (1997) reviewed the description and all available citations pertaining to S. ternetzi. They could not find reliable characters to distinguish between the two, and consider S. ternetzi as a nonlinear cline (varying body shape) of P. nattereri. This yellow-form has been successfully bred in captivity by a hobbyist in Ohio for quite a few years. The bright yellow belly distinguishes this "home grown P. nattereri" from the other commonly bred red piranhas found in pet stores.

Please read my seed feeding experiment. These piranhas started out with red-bellies later began developing a yellowish-gold tint after ingesting large quantities of seeds as their only food source.

The Paraguayan variety do lack the red found in the eye, but in science eye color is just one characteristic and cannot be held as a sole indicator of species identification nor head, color or body shape. I hope this finally puts to rest the question, is S. ternetzi a valid species. You cannot simply stick a name on a fish and expect it to have meaning without knowing all the parameters of why a scientific name is placed. And there will always be a few that will argue this point based on their limited knowledge and understanding of scientific methods of placing fish.

Only the name is available and the fish name is placed as a synonym of P. nattereri (Fink 1993).


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Gotta love all the info in OPEFE!!!


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

heh, smooth


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