Could Someone ID This Cichlid?

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Well I definitely can't keep this little dude. Probably trade him in for something at my lfs. Or you think I should grow him out and feed him quality food til he starts becoming aggressive then sell him for more?
 
About the shape - who knows it could be one of those new "balloon" types that they're coming out with a lot nowadays. That same store sold me a "balloon ram" and they told me it was a Ramsel ( a cross between an angelfish and a ram) I came home and looked online and of course it was an epic fail. i took it back and traded it for a regular bolivian ram.
 
As a rule of thumb, I don't believe anything most pet stores say. They tell you what their distributor/supplier tells them. This is especially true of chain stores. Longfin balloon rams are often called "angel rams," but they're not hybrids. You cannot cross an angelfish with a ram. I tend to avoid the "balloon" and short-bodied fish because IMO it's a physical deformity that shouldn't be bred. I feel the same way about bulldog discus with the super-high bodies. I'll get off my soapbox now.

If your fish is a festae, it probably won't stay peaceful for long. Once it settles in and gets comfortable, it'll probably start to assert itself. I certainly wouldn't leave it in a tank with a dwarf gourami for very long.
 
first time looking at this post and through out the whole thread since the first pic i was thinking festea. so yea festea i think it is
 
I've seen lots of fish that look kinda like this as juvies. Mayan, festae, and Lyonsi fry look kind of like the fish in question, as juveniles. Also so do flower horn fry. Its hard to say without really clear pictures. Keep him for a few weeks and keep him growing and you'll have a better idea of what you have. Without clear pictures and a bit older specimen all we can do is take a shot in the dark as to what it is. We only have the information that you have which unfortunately isn't much. Time will tell, but I would be leery as to keeping it with 'semi-aggressive' fish even as juveniles some species can be quite nasty

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Put him in a box and ship him to me! :) looks festae to me too i new i saw a tail spot in there. doesnt look flowerhorn. mayans i think are a bit taller bodied. i dont rly see anything "balloon" about this fish. im going by the first pic only and the last pic. better pics the better id.
 
You cannot cross an angelfish with a ram. I tend to avoid the "balloon" and short-bodied fish because IMO it's a physical deformity that shouldn't be bred.

I feel the same way. I was gullible enough to believe in Ramsels at the time, because I've bred them both before and I know they look similar as fry, but when I got home and typed it into google it became clear pretty fast that they were full of crap. I too prefer the more natural looking fish.

I'm going to bring him into a different pet store in town and see if he'll let me trade him out for something else, maybe a couple rainbows or something.

I'm gonna post a couple more pics but it's not gonna really matter because I'm assuming it's a juvenlile of some sort of gigantic aggressive beast. Right after I post this I'm going to attempt to catch him and then drive up to the other lfs and see what he'll trade me for it.
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Changed my mind. I said "i think it's a red terror" when i walked in. The owner of the store took one look in the bag and said definitively "it's a texas. If it was a red terror it'd be worth about 50 bucks". Now, as he said this I was looking in his tanks. Although this guy says he's been in the hobby for years, the way he stocks his tanks is just plain retarded. The tank I was looking at that really had me laughing was a tank full of oscars and green spotted pufferfish with a tiretrack eel and a electric yellow mbuna. That's just one example... if you saw his tanks they're all stocked like that and all his fish look like crap.

Anyway he said he'd trade me for a threadfin rainbow for 5.99 but I said I'd keep the cichlid.

I guess I'm going to keep it in the tank it's in and if i notice it being aggressive I'll move it to a 20 long by himself.

Would anyone seriously be interested in buying him? I've never shipped fish before but if you could explain it to me and pay a price for the fish that reflects the time and effort of feeding him frozen food and setting up another tank for him, let me know.
 
that is not a texas ill tell you that much i am 100% sure it isnt texas i am still saying festea because my lfs got red terrors in and they are all tank with the tail spot and red tinted fins just like yours
 
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