There are multiple fish of Central American descent that appear to be mixes of Amphilophus and maybe Vieja or Herichthys species. They do not all look the same, and there looked to be a couple of pairs where the male and female were of very different color morphs. It is POSSIBLE that they are somehow part of the midas cichlid complex, maybe something out of the Nicaraguan crater lakes, but they were not identifiable to me as any species of Amphilophus that I have seen pictured on Jeff Rapps' site or seen in the Willem Heijns video "Nicaragua: Cichlids from the Crater".
Regardless of whether they occur in nature or not (which again I doubt, they look like hybrids to me), they DO NOT LIVE IN THE AMAZON unless someone has introduced them there as an exotic species.
And I don't think they are Amphilophus trimaculatus because the females of the 2 pairs I saw were colored more like a red devil (citrinellus or labiatus) and from my understanding a trimac female takes on a dark color form when paired with a male. The males also did not exactly have all the dark markings behind and above the eye and at the rear to the top of the tail that are characteristic of a trimac. However the males did have close to the trimac body shape so I figured flowerhorn as soon as I saw them.
If I get back to the Amazon exhibit soon I'll try to take pictures this time. The stingrays, arowanas, arapaimas, pacus, natural discus, etc. at the Amazon exhibit should be well documented for all to see. Come to think of it I need to go picture crazy for you guys soon as I might be moving and forced to take down some of my tanks that I haven't even posted anything of yet...
Regardless of whether they occur in nature or not (which again I doubt, they look like hybrids to me), they DO NOT LIVE IN THE AMAZON unless someone has introduced them there as an exotic species.
And I don't think they are Amphilophus trimaculatus because the females of the 2 pairs I saw were colored more like a red devil (citrinellus or labiatus) and from my understanding a trimac female takes on a dark color form when paired with a male. The males also did not exactly have all the dark markings behind and above the eye and at the rear to the top of the tail that are characteristic of a trimac. However the males did have close to the trimac body shape so I figured flowerhorn as soon as I saw them.
If I get back to the Amazon exhibit soon I'll try to take pictures this time. The stingrays, arowanas, arapaimas, pacus, natural discus, etc. at the Amazon exhibit should be well documented for all to see. Come to think of it I need to go picture crazy for you guys soon as I might be moving and forced to take down some of my tanks that I haven't even posted anything of yet...