It also occurs in the río Caura on the Guyana Shield plus the Ventauri and Mavaca drainages in the middle and upper Orinoco where it’s also known from some white water, referring to turbidity rather than turbulence, habitats. To the north its distribution appears limited by the Las Majaguas dam on the Río Cojedes, a tributary of the Apure where a probable introduced population inhabits the res…

At least two colour forms have been traded, one of which is more intensely-coloured and has been referred to as H. sweglesi ‘red’ or ‘rubra’. The bright red pigmentation is retained in long-term captive specimens, suggesting that it is not considered to be an artefact of diet, but we suspect it might reflect conditions at the collection locality with the reddest fish putatively inhabiting blackwater and plainer forms clearwater environments. Zarske (2014) found the two forms to be identical in terms of morphology an…