Leliella (Rineloricaria) sp. "Red Lizard" (L10a)
Leliella sp. "Red Lizard" (L10a), juvenile at 3 inch.
A young male Red Lizard.
The red color can be stunning if they are cared for properly.
I found this "wildtype" individual among a batch of about 30 red fry from winter 2007. The specimen looks very similar to Leliella heteroptera and Hemiloricaria lanceolata.
The origin of the "Red Lizard" is unclear, as is the parental species. Leipzig in the former GDR was mentioned in Mergus Catfish Atlas 1. Chances are it is a mutant form of a species imported in the 1970's or early 1980's, maybe even earlier. Red Lizards belong to the genus Leliella or Rineloricaria, depending on who you believe. The only species in Leliella is heteroptera which is apparently very close to the Red Lizards, so maybe it is a mutant of Leliella (Rineloricaria) heteroptera but many people do not recognize Leliella and consider only Rineloricaria. But crosses with other Hemiloricaria (Rineloricaria) species, mainly lanceolata seemed quite common. From the picture above, one could easily assume that they were once crossed with Hemiloricaria lanceolata (Chocolate whiptail). It was rumored that some clever breeders in Europe crossed their rather small and weak Red Lizards with wild chocolates to increase the fish size and therefore eventually the clutch size. My parental fish originated from Germany and apparently, I got "lucky". By breeding my small group further a more or less "chocolaty" specimen (I think it was a male; unfortunately, he died in January 2008) probably resulted from genetic recombination of the crossed-in chocolate genes. It would have been interesting to see a back-cross to a red female. Nevertheless, these red whiptails are great fish and I hope to acquire some again soon.