Tongue33;2475129; said:
Weird...;. Scats already had a Full dress at that size.
That was my thought exactly.
Kelberi are a smaller Cichla species maxing out at 14"-16". They should color up at a much smaller size than monos, orinos or tems.
I recall Seiichi saying that despite recent Cichla descriptions stating only kelberi show spotting in the fins, he has seen monos with fin spotting albeit not as heavy as exhibited by kelberi. There's a possibility that despite the spots and different look that they are simply an exceptional mono race. There's also a possibility that they are a natural hybrid of mono x kelberi thereby exhibiting traits carried by both species. It may be a new, not as of yet, described specie.
If you refer back to my kelberi progression thread you'll see that even at 4"-6" mine were looking quite different than Molokai's fish at 7".
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177153&highlight=progression
I also refer back to the difficulties I have experienced in trying to get mine on anything besides live food. I'm amazed that some of you have your kelberi eating everything and anything and how easy it was to accomplish.
Lastly, my kelberi are decidely NOT aggressive yet I've seen several people here mention how theirs are top dog. Again, totally the opposite of my experiince.
I'm not trying to thow gas on a fire but simply making an observation based on what I've dealt with vs. what others are seeing. I guess time will tell. This could get interesting...