ID? does this look like a baby festae to you?

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well, does anyone HAVE a picture of a young [1ish inch] festae? or a young midas/rd?


midas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51200921@N06/5660600772/


festae. The misses identified this as the fish as the one she saw at work out of about a dozen various Amphilophus ssp photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51200921@N06/5660600748/

young midas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51200921@N06/5660600712/


older festae. She says it looks more like this in person but smaller, the barring is faint.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51200921@N06/5660031195/


we'll see tomorrow. Whatever it is, it definitely looks like an Amphilophus. I really like Amphilophus and have been picking up some nice ones at work [lyonsi, robertsoni, etc]
 
I've got a robertsoni. It looks similar except the tail spot is too high, too small. The fins are suspicious to me too. I have to admit, she took awful pics. I'm bringing them home no matter what because now I want to see. I'll post high quality pictures tomorrow morning dudes.
 
They came in as red devils, they look like red devils, odds are they ARE red devils. 99.9% chance they're a red devil mix type that LFS's always carry.
 
They look like juvenile RD/Midas. They look like that when they are young. It's only as the grow and mature that their colors change and they begin looking like common RD and Midas that people are used to seeing. They don't resemble Festae at all to me. A friend of mine purchased a similar fish that was placed in a Firemouth tank at the store. Within a few weeks it was clear that his unidentified cichlid was a Red Devil. But still post better pics when you can. I hope you do end up with a surprise.
 
Okay. The misses took those pictures with a 2-year-old camera phone with 2 megapixels, so that's why they are so bad.

We picked them up and took better pictures with a DSLR. Due to the lighting it was difficult to take decent pictures.


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In this one I've highlighted the y-shaped barring

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In this one I've pointed out the distinctive eye-spot on the tail

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Even though the fish were found at Petsmart, you have to remember that mistakes do happen. I spent a while last night comparing juvie festae and red devil pics and I honestly don't think they are red devils. Festae or not, it will be interesting to see what they grow into.
 
I still say those are not Festae. I've raised Festae from juvenile to adults and they looked nothing like those. A lot of juvenile fish have tail spots. You are dealing with RD type fish in their juvenile stage. But you will know better once they are acclimated to your tank and as they begin to grow. Festae at Petsmart would be the ultimate mistake for them and bonus for us!
 
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