Ok according to the resident expert, the fugly
pike I have:
“They are exported out of Peru under the name
manchada pike. A rough translation of manchada is stained or
speckled
As far as I know, the only place they have been
collected is Peru and curiously I have seen manchada pikes that
appear to be johanna type and a saxatalis type (possibly lucius).
The source of that unique color pattern is somewhat controversial -
many think that it is a parasitic organism that infects the fish
slowly over time and will eventually kill it. Because they are
rarely collected in the wild, no one has had enough specimens to
study and to the best of my knowledge there are no scientific
papers on them. But I am sure that there is a facinating story
involved and that it will be revealed by someone much smarter than
me.
My personal experience with them-
I bought a manchada (johanna type) from Jeff Rapps and had it for
almost a year. It was large (about 10") and had a pinkish belly
(probably a female) and patches of metallic green. It also looked
like someone poured black rubber on parts of it - very cool looking
IMHO. I am pretty sure that it's coloration was caused by another
organism (virus, parasite?), but I can't be sure. I believe my
specimen could have been a female to R1's apparent male. It is
known as an "Army Pike" in Japan and Europe. Probably because of
the camouflage pattern.”
