FIREMOUTH Cichlid (Two Subspecies or the same)

[Cyberman]

Hi Guys,

Just thought I'd bring up a little subject thats kinda close to my heart... Firemouths and try and understand why some look different from eachother. Together I hope we can help eachother to notice these subtle differences and knowing what to expect.

The opinion I have at the moment is that there is the Meeki species with the straight to convex forehead to snout profile

Convex

Convex FM

Concave

 

[fishman09]

not two different species. theres always a variability in body shape and colors in all fish and the slope of the forehead doesnt seem enough to vary between species and subspecies or whatnot. the larger concave one looks to be a sexually mature male also and it could be growing a slight nuchal hump and the other two look very small and fat

 

[aclockworkorange]

Those first two just look bloated. However, since T. meeki has such a wide range in nature, I have no doubts there are some different looking variants of the species. Unfortunately, they seem to be very rarely collected now for the hobby, and almost everything we get in the US is just aquarium strain and most just don't look very good.


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[Tayler]

The concave looks sick!

 

[welsher7]

The first two pics appear to be a much smaller/younger than the third.

 

[rrcoolj]

Probably just different variants. I know there is a riverine firemouth cichlid that has a long snout and grows large like 7" but the whole fish is elongated.

 

[Stratoquarius]

Geophagus brasiliensis can occur in different colours, with different body and head shapes depending on their locality, so it is possible that theyre all one species.
however its possible that Brasiliensis needs to be broken into smaller groups and that there may very well be two kinds of Firemouth cichlid.

 

[Cyberman]

not two different species. theres always a variability in body shape and colors in all fish and the slope of the forehead doesnt seem enough to vary between species and subspecies or whatnot. the larger concave one looks to be a sexually mature male also and it could be growing a slight nuchal hump and the other two look very small and fat

I said two "Sub-Species" not two seperate Species.... Like theres the Bengal or Siberian Tigers and the African or Asian Lions... both are "Sub-Species"

The concave looks sick!

That fish definately isn't sick or deformed if thats what you're trying to suggest.... hes the most dominant healthiest FM I have.

 

[Cyberman]

Heres a couple more examples...

Convex FM

Convex FM

Concave FM

 

[Stratoquarius]

Concave looks like a similar face and body structure to salvini. maybe these fish are closer related than we thought.