help naming a fish species
- Thread starter fishtankmaster5
- Start date
There are lots of cichlids that school in the wild but in captivity would kill another member of their species on site... A lot of times as aquarists we fool ourselves into thinking the behaviour we see is what the fish would naturally do. While it may be the case sometimes, it most definitely isn't *all* the time.
So far as the colours being "off", just like a lot of other Cichlids their colour changes quite regularly. With mood, breeding dress, temperature, water conditions, agression, ect. They can have a basic black barred with brown base colour, the deep red normally seen in pics (because lots of people want to show off the best possible colours) and there's even one type locale that is blue (there's a few pic's of these in AquaLog "Central American Cichlids III" if I remember correctly)...
Basically, if you want a definitive (or close to anyway) ID, next time you catch one count the scales on it's lateral line, the number of hard dorsal spines, number of soft dorsal rays and possibly even the number of scales running around it's caudal penical (sp?) (ie: the part of the body that is attached to the tail fin). From there it can be compared to the original scientific description of the species.
... but it's a festae
.
Chris
So far as the colours being "off", just like a lot of other Cichlids their colour changes quite regularly. With mood, breeding dress, temperature, water conditions, agression, ect. They can have a basic black barred with brown base colour, the deep red normally seen in pics (because lots of people want to show off the best possible colours) and there's even one type locale that is blue (there's a few pic's of these in AquaLog "Central American Cichlids III" if I remember correctly)...
Basically, if you want a definitive (or close to anyway) ID, next time you catch one count the scales on it's lateral line, the number of hard dorsal spines, number of soft dorsal rays and possibly even the number of scales running around it's caudal penical (sp?) (ie: the part of the body that is attached to the tail fin). From there it can be compared to the original scientific description of the species.
... but it's a festae
. Chris
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Moshi I noticed but unfortunately without a pic hard to say.
After some more research tonight and more responses to the post on NANFA I think Bob is right, I checked and festae's have no known populations established in florida, where there are substantial populations of, posted is a link to University of Florida website and if you searcha round you will find more info on Mayans including known ranges as of 2001, now is it possible for Festaes to be established by now, yes but the majority concensus on NANFA is Mayan as well. Mayans.Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department: Mayan Cichlid
heres a link to the NANFA thread.
ID assistance on another forum - NANFA Forum
After some more research tonight and more responses to the post on NANFA I think Bob is right, I checked and festae's have no known populations established in florida, where there are substantial populations of, posted is a link to University of Florida website and if you searcha round you will find more info on Mayans including known ranges as of 2001, now is it possible for Festaes to be established by now, yes but the majority concensus on NANFA is Mayan as well. Mayans.Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department: Mayan Cichlid
heres a link to the NANFA thread.
ID assistance on another forum - NANFA Forum