ID on Geophagus please

[unkle_billy]

steini or pellegrini? I got it as a pellegrini but it looks like a steini to me. he has a spot on the caudal. I've read this means it's a steini however i've found profiles of pellegrinis with pics of fish with the spot. maybe this is just an incorrect pic.

 

[unkle_billy]

more pics with male and female

 

[jworth]

Cant say for sure but it looks like a Steindachneri

 

[flowerpower]

Do pellegrini get red humps like steindachneri? I have the latter. Mine are smaller with less blue but more red on the forehead. I believe that there's another sp. that s commonly confused w/ these. Crassilabrus, I believe. Beautiful fish whatever it is. BTW, Rapps has pics of wild steindachneri in one of his threads.

 

[peathenster]

too much blue and wrong lateral bar pattern....but again, I've never seen a pellegrini before.

 

[flowerpower]

too much blue and wrong lateral bar pattern....but again, I've never seen a pellegrini before.

Pellegrini is very uncommon in the hobby, true? I've heard others say "I've never seen pellegrini before" or " I've only seen pellegrini alive once in all the years I've been keeping fish". I've never, until recently, had any interest in earth-eaters and I'd love to know more about these two species of fish.

 

[unkle_billy]

that's two of us. I'm sure we have a pro around here somewhere to sheds some light. I've been into the gymnos quite a bit and these guys remind me a lot more of the gymnos than other geos. I'm going to try and house them together but if I can find out exactly what they are it might help me take better care of them.

I read one thing saying that red hump eartheaters are rare in the hobby basically because no one wants them so lfs never pick them up. Seems strange yet very true of a lot of gymnos as well because they are such a hard sell when they are small colorless fish. I can't find balzanii around here for the life of me!

 

[unkle_billy]

ALso if it helps this guy does have red on his hump even though the pic doesn't show it very well.

 

[darth pike]

Appears to be a group of nicely colored stieny's to me as well.

I've only seen true Pellegrini pics once, on Alf Stalsberg's website. He actually went down and collected some and brought them back to Europe. Sometimes we see crassilabris over here in the US, but even they are really rare. Almost all out redhumps are stienys.The Pellegrini come from an area that has no commericial collectors, right smack in the middle of the cocaine plantations. Not many individuals are willing to try and grab some obviously. Alf is a nut though, in a good way.

 

[unkle_billy]

who is this alf stalsberg?