ID the Banded Jewel please

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fishman76092

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 28, 2005
337
5
18
Trophy Club, TX
Ran into this fish today on my travels. Labeled as H. elongatus but doesnt look like one to me. I believe its either H. fasciatus or frempongi. I have seen H. fasciatus twice in the past 25 years and frempongi havent been around since Jeff Rapps stopped breeding them a few years ago....so seeing this fish was pretty cool.

Given that the black spots are 'clean', it should be frempongi, but the frempongi I had had a bunch of red on them. The fasciatus I had in the past had the red in dotted rows like this fish has, so I'm stumped.

Any help would be appreciated.

photo.JPG
 
I've got a few feelers out there to 'people in the know' to see what they think. I don't believe it to be frempongi after looking at the ones I used to have in photos. the head/mouth was just different. I've only seen 6"+ fasciatus...the fish in the photo is about 3"+ and they looked pretty similar-that is what I thought they were. The elongatus that we know from Nigeria, does have the red dots but the ones I've seen are never in the belly, only between the black spots coupled with the green spangling that is evident on them.

Here are a couple photos of the frempongi I had about the same size. Very upturned mouth. Got them in 2003/4 from Toyin and then shipped them to Jeff Rapps when I moved to TX from FL.
schooloffrempongi_zps9a7680da.jpg

DSC00676_zpsc2857651.jpg


One of a smaller H. fasciatus
Hemichromis_fasciatus_s_zpse090b1df.jpg


Nigerian elongatus
hemichromis_elongatus_1_zps929ff782.jpg


Paul Loiselle got back to me this morning and told me that he believes this is the 'real' Hemichromis elongatus. The one from Nigeria, according to Anton Lamboj (per Paul) is an undescribed Hemichromis. The original description of H. elongatus was a fish that was caught in Gabon or the Congo and he believes it is this fish. I've sent him a note back requesting more info. After digging around, I believe that he is correct.

From what I've pulled up on the internet, there are a couple reports of Hemichromis cf. elongatus 'super red' from a few years ago.

Here is a photo of one- which looks a lot like the fish I photographed:
hemi_cf_elong_female3_zps5722ad89.jpg


Mystery solved! Thanks Paul!
 
Where did you find these??? They still available??? I've been looking for some.
 
I think this is an H. Elongatus. The cameroon strain is supposed to get really red. If you youtube Hemichromis Elongatus, you will see a pair that is super red. These were wild caught and the guy is part of our forum. I forget his name tho.
 
marconi said:
Awesome but super aggressive fish :) I've owned faciatus and I have to say there where crazy! Elongatus most be nuts too....love this fish!
Click to expand...

H. Elongatus is last in aggression as far as the 5 spot jewels go. H. Fasciatus is 100x more relentless then Elongatus. Frempongi is next. I'ved kept all 3 species and have a H. Fasciatus pair and 2 H. Frempongi. My Frempongi will not kill Dovii's the same size (3.5'). My Fasciatus has a rap sheet of fish killed. They're nuts!
 
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