ID my Texan

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Let me be clear before any words are put in my mouth... As far as 'knowing' fish, I've noticed over the years that aquarists and fisherman always impress me the most. Scientists can be quite narrow in their field of knowledge (it's the nature of the beast). I wouldn't be surprised (I'd actually be thrilled) if a hobbyist helped me with this classic carpintis-cyanoguttatus question!!!

I actually think of myself as a hobbyist first, because I kept fish long before I got my Master's (which was on snakes!). Being a hobbyist is what made my Ph.D. stuff that much easier and enjoyable!
 
It is very true that these two species and subspecies very greatly from locale to locale, I have caught wild Cyano's in Travis county(Austin) that had very little pearls at all and body color was very yellow-green, also they had much larger nunchal humps than most Cyano's I have seen, The Cyano I have caught in the Houston area look almost the same in body shape and base color, but many more though still very small pearls. All of these that are wild here in Texas are definitly Cyanoguttas, and do not look like any "Texas Cichlids" I have seen in any pet stores, most fish sold in pet stores are Hybrids of Cyano and Carpintis unless you have personally caught your own fish or bought them from someone who has collected them from a specific locale there is no 100% certain way of knowing what you really have.
 
Husky Jerk;3358661; said:
Carpintis, IMO. Is the fish under 6 inches? He looks exactly (especially the face pattern) like mine did until he got over 7". The pearling has definately increased since then. Mine tend to look dull for a while after they darken after breeding. Of course mine is from an LFS, albeit pretty good one, so take it for what its worth.
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No they are both at 4.5 to 4.75" at the moment. Both of them eat like pigs and Tex the first fish I posted has lost his skiddishness. Shred the second fish is still skiddish, and grounded in to a corner by a jag till I get my next work comp check.

As far as where we are on the ID of the 2 fish, I'm just going to call it a texan, besides Tex is raising mutts anyway. I still believe it's a cyano. I'll talk to the LFS and see what they have to say.
 
bigspizz;3355564; said:
First pic looks carpintis, it is either that or a mix of the two.
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I still stand by this...And only 11 min's after the thread was posted in the first place...I don't even have a fish degree. But I bet I can ID a fish. There is no reason to smash everyone else, to bolster one person. PHD's tell me bull crap every other time I ask for their oppinion.....
 
lol im deff not getting involved in this battle of the wits... hahaha
 
bigspizz;3361034; said:
I still stand by this...And only 11 min's after the thread was posted in the first place...I don't even have a fish degree. But I bet I can ID a fish. There is no reason to smash everyone else, to bolster one person. PHD's tell me bull crap every other time I ask for their oppinion.....
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Again, I agree that it is a Hybrid, it is def not a pure Cyano Texas.
 
bigspizz;3361034; said:
I still stand by this...And only 11 min's after the thread was posted in the first place...I don't even have a fish degree. But I bet I can ID a fish. There is no reason to smash everyone else, to bolster one person. PHD's tell me bull crap every other time I ask for their oppinion.....
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oh brother...why drag this out? Let's stay focused on the cyano-carpintis debate.

wiseman82, thanks for getting back to the informational aspect. I think an interesting question is how much variation you see 'within' those locales. Were they pretty consistent within each place you caught them?
 
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