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Hey everyone! as some of you might know my favorite fish of all time are raphaels. particuarly Striped Raphaels. I try to read up on them as much as i can. well several times when i was looking for striped raphael information online i ran across the name southeren striped raphael catfish. and quite honestly i cant seem to find much more than that. Im not sure if its just someone adding something to the name or if its actually another type of raphael. Has anyone ever heard of these or know anything about them? Or Know somewhere i can go to learn about them? its been puzzling me for some months now and i just now thought to post something on here! anyways any help would be appreciated!

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we dont know what to do.

According to Fishbase, the Southern Striped Raphael Catfish is another species, the closely related Platydoras armatulus. If it ever appears in the hobby it'll probably come up as a contaminant of true Raphaels. That's the reason you aren't finding much, since they aren't extremely common in the hobby. Even if some make it in, most people will probably think they just have a normal Raphael; looking at the pics on PlanetCatfish, the two species of Raphael look just about exactly the same.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Sora, any chance you could post a pic of your fish? I saw the profile the other day and I really like them.

Well i never put to much stock in fishbase itself. it always seems a little out of date. i trust planetcatfish more but i really only started exploring it in earnest ealier today. however i do trust this site and its members so ill take your word for it. the name platydoras armatulus clears some stuff up. i bought a book on fish the otherday and it had the striped raphaels name as platydoras armatulus. and i thought nooo its platydoras costatus. anyways umm did you find out any way to tell the two apart? im gonna go check out planet catfish right now. umm yeah brengun i can try to post one or to later. ive never really done it before. youll have to wait till i can get a camera though so a day or to lol. thanks Shinigami!

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we dont know what to do.

As far as fishbase goes, for general knowledge on almost any fish species there's nothing better. It has widespread usage, especially among those in the scientific field to find basic knowledge on a species. On the other hand, for catfish information PlanetCatfish is undoubtedly the best, as a number of scientists in the field such as Heok Hee Ng and others are regular members and article writers.

I did a little detective work on PlanetCatfish and it seems the main difference between the two species is the humeral process, which is a bony process that extends backwards right above the pectoral fin. Apparently the humeral process is of a different shape between Platydoras costatus and P. armatulus; check the images at planetcatfish to compare, as it's a little hard to describe since I'm still not 100% on the difference.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

your right in that general knowledge fishbase is probably the best. however i dont know i just find the layout confusing sometime. and it feels all cluttered. planet catfish however im very much enjoying. anyways back on topic. thats gotta be pretty hard to determine. its a pretty slight diffrence. i took alook at the pics and couldnt really tell them apart. well actually the striped seemed like it was hunched over more but maybe that was just me. im going to do a little digging of my own tommorow afternoon as well so maybe one of us will come up with something. thanks so much for the help!

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we dont know what to do.