Help identifying

[Frank Castle]

Yours looks like carpintis spots are too big for cyan.

Yes that's true Frank, larger spots are usually carpintus.
Although for years both species have been interbred in aquariums (mostly because people didn't realize the difference between the half dozen or so species of Herichthys (much like what happened to Paratilapia)) so there is an aquarium strain that pervades LFSs, or chain stores, those stores that don't order from trusted people Rapps, or Gage, etc I find to be suspect.
I've been in LFSs that can't tell the difference between a fire mouth and a JD, so telling Herichthys apart would be a gargantuan leap for most.
And when young is very hard to tell them apart.

Above a young H tamasopoensus
below carpintus "Chairel"

or even telling a species apart when in different stages of life can be interesting
male carpintus one day

same male another day

I've also seen that the Cyanaguttatus pearling is more uniform in pattern. Carpinte pearling is not as evenly lined up across the body. That might be due to the size of the pearls...but there you go.

This is a h. Cyano I had. Spots are really small, much smaller than any of the caprintis variations. H. Tamasopoensus is very similar IMO.

View attachment 1200618

I'm gonna try and get some better pix.....i'm about overdue to update my thread anyway......I don't think the spots on mine look anything like the carpintis I have been seeing lately, and i'm sure there's a possibility they could be hybrids, but I want to find out for sure

 

[duanes]

Finding out for sure, is a daunting task indeed. I first had cyanoguttatus in the late 1950s, so I would imagine aquarium hybridizing of Herichthys cyanoguttaus/carpintus or others of the genus (thru ignorance that they were 2 or more actual species) started way back then. So the possibility to tracking the provenance down unless you have DNA sequencing at your fingertips, would be akin to finding the golden fleece.
The only way to be reasonably sure what you have is to get (start with) the decedents of true wild caught species from a source that actually cares, about provenance.