Not a derail at all! The more info the better!
I'll even tell you a tale of my day, and the valuable lesson I learned. (Cheap does not equal good)
I had to get cat food, so I went to Petsmart, the only place that sells what I feed (Blue Wilderness, grain free - lol) I weakened due to funds, and had decided I'd get some of the $1.25 harlequins if they looked good. Well, they were so young & small that their color is just starting to develop. I couldn't tell if the milky grey perimeters were healthy tissue that didn't have pigment yet, or if they had a touch of a velvet-type thing. So I passed. I went across the street - against my better judgement - to the lfs that has BOGO on Mondays for fish less than $5.01. This is the same lfs where I bought the celebes rainbows that probably brought the columnaris to my 55g tank. I bought those fish, things started dying two days later. In less than a week I lost 22 fish.
So anyhow, I get there and they have pretty blue tetras (I had them bag up 5), gold tetras, red-eye tetras, lemon tetras, and diamond tetras - which is what I originally wanted. I'd been eyeing them since 4 days ago, waiting on the Monday special. So my 5 blue tetras are in the bag, but I see one of the diamond tetras is swimming as fast as it can - but it's body is vertical. Nose up, tail down, going around and around zippy fast. Nix the diamonds. I see the red-eyes are with head & tail lights, then I see one has a big, fat milky grey saddle. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I thought of columnaris right away. I pointed it out to the sales clerk abnd he goes "oh yeah, I'll get him outta there!". That's when I told him to put the blue tetras back in, too. I left empty handed for both places.
All the way home I said "stop being so d*mn cheap, and cough up the dough for shipping, and get good healthy fish from msjnkzd - they've already been quarantined!" LOL
Then I get home and the mailman is at the boxes (I live in a mobile home park and the mailboxes are in blocks). He says "you hit the jackbox today!" and I knew the plants I bought on SnS were in! But I didn't have a key left in my box (to open the drop boxes for big things). He checked & sure enough he'd put the key in someone else's mailbox. Normally he wouldn't even be there so late, so I got lucky! Then I open the boxes and it's like Christmas! Everyone sent extras, bonuses, other plants for me to try - woo-hoo!
Moral of the story; if you are good, use willpower, and pass on sick fish, the Fish Gods will reward you with plants.
And stop messing with Big Box stores and get the real deal from Rachel - lol.
Also, I didn't notice it before but excuse the dissolving clumps of GH booster lol. Thanks for the compliment. As for differences between the two, as far as I know the "lambchop" shaped black pigmentation in Harlequinns is a bit larger compared to Espeis and Espeis also tend to have more of that lovely copper color to them as well as bolder colors in general. Harlequinns will color up nicely too as long as they're kept nice and healthy.
