Geophagus ID. Your guess is as good as mine!

[redlegsmlb]

I saw this mature adult Geophagus at a LFS while on a business trip and the species has me and several others left scratching our heads. He is around 8-9".
Initially I though altifrons, due to the size of it's spot. However, the prominent striping of the tail disagrees with me. I've been told that there may be a location of altifrons that may have striped tails, but no one can seem to remember where that is.
I then thought, abalios, but I have never seen this much red in an adult abalios.

I've been keeping Geos, several species, for a long time and this one has me baffled. I have contacted several of my Geo connections, and they have all given me a different answer. Hopefully someone wiser than I can help out.

 

[AquaAlex1993]

This is my geophagus abalios. They have a big black spot.
To me it looks like geophagus altifrons tocantins

 

[ryansmith83]

Unfortunately it's hard to know definitively. The tail looks suspiciously like megasema or abalios but the small spot and lack of facial markings suggest altifrons or neambi.

As I found out the hard way, geos will gladly hybridize, so it could very well be a mutt. Unless you knew for sure of the lineage it's really hard to say. But overall it does look most like altifrons to me.

 

[redlegsmlb]

Unfortunately it's hard to know definitively. The tail looks suspiciously like megasema or abalios but the small spot and lack of facial markings suggest altifrons or neambi.

As I found out the hard way, geos will gladly hybridize, so it could very well be a mutt. Unless you knew for sure of the lineage it's really hard to say. But overall it does look most like altifrons to me.

I agree. Could very well be a mutt. I currently keep both altifrons and neambi, and the fin patterns are too different for me to definitively say it's one or the other. I would be all in on megasema if the spot were much larger.