Id 2 Fish Please?

[fishblahblah]

The little one is possibly brichardi fry. He/she is a little over an inch, has yellow and orange in his fins, and a sort of mottled/spotted tanish color.

Second one is larger (about 3") and possibly melanura/synspilum. He also has yellow and red in his fins and a red shoulder. His body is dark and colors are not very developed.

 

[duanes]

Here is a young melanura to compare

another shot of melanura

I'm guessing what you mean by brichardi, is really breidhori
so here are some breidhori to compare
1st 1" fry

now a little older

and as young adults

most young Vieja look so similar its nearly impossible to tell apart
case in point a young V bifasciata

 

[fishblahblah]

Thanks for the great pics. Yea, i did mean breidorhi. From your pics, I would say the little one is closest to the bifasciatus. I was able to find a pic during a google search of a fish that looks exactly like the little guy but cannot pull up the webpage for more info. He looks just like this:
The spots on his body make him stand out to me. He was the result of a surprise spawn at one of my lfs and the fish guy's best guess as to who his parents are were breidorhi. I guess as he grows I'll be able to better tell.
I would say the larger one is def melanura. He was labeled but I just wanted to make sure the id was correct.

 

[fishblahblah]

Someone suggested vieja hartwegi on another forum. What do you think?

 

[duanes]

One of the most distinguishing features of hartwegi, is a pronounced overbite, and I don't see that in any of the photos. Doesn't mean it isn't one though, they are not sharp enough in detail to make an accurate judgement, and because most Vieja don't develop distinguishing features until older there's no way to be sure, and .....color at a young age is also not relevant.
That young bifasciata in my first reply grew into this.

 

[fishblahblah]

That's a good looking fish. I love the colors that viejas have to offer. They're each uniquely beautiful fish. At what size did you start to see the colors develop?

 

[duanes]

Colors started popping on the breidhori at about 5", the bifasciata a bit larger.

 

[the animal guy]

Bifa and Syn

 

[dan518]

At that size it could be any of the Paratheraps spp, you need to give it a few months then post back.

 

[fishblahblah]

My little viejas have grown quite a bit! Here are some new pics. I’m still unsure what the smaller one is but the larger is definitely a melanura. They are roughly 4” and 5”, respectively.