New fish. Need ID please!

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L

lymiq

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 14, 2006
285
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48
virginia
This 3" guy was marked as conkelli cichlid ... i googled the name but none came with a scientific name ... could it be a hybrid? the top, dorsal fin & cheeks are orange .. somebody tell me what this might be ...

he looked a little tattered ... the teenage girl at the fish shop had the fish jumped to the floor twice ... he's a jumper

conkelli_cichlid.JPG

conkelli_cichlid2.JPG

conkelli_cichlid3.JPG
 
vieja synspilum ?
 
Too elongated for a synspilum.... not sure what, though. Hartwegi?
 
that would have been my second guess - but like you said, skinny shape.
 
Modest_Man;912739; said:
Looks like an underfed, stressed P. fenestratus that is morphing to the red phase, which Don Conkel carries. www.donconkelstropicals.com

They're the only vieja type that have a red phase, so if it isn't that I'd speculate a hybrid.
Click to expand...


Is Don Conkel hybridizing his fish? wonder why the petshop has his name for the fish 'conkelli'?? is he calling the red/orange fenestratus species his new found? also you wrote P. fenestratus is that supposed to be a Veija (V.) fenestratus ...

i looked in his website ... don't see anything similar to the fish i bought ... more info would be helpful ...
 
Long story short, yes, Conkel has had hybrid fish before. Though it is few and inbetween. Though a store with a mislabeled fish would be nothing new.

The valid scientific name for a fene is now Paratheraps fenestratus, not Vieja fenestratus. They are one and the same.

On this page http://www.donconkelstropicals.com/paratheraps.htm under "sp catemaco" is the lake isolated red form of P. fenestratus, fully faded. Yours appears to be in mid phase, if it is a fene.

Edit: Here's a good shot of morphing fenes from Catemaco, courtesy of cjexotics.

Catemaco.JPG
 
thanks modestman, rallysman, santoury, ewurm for your comments ... that clears it up quite a bit ... the petshop has several both faded and pied like mine ... do you know if the viejas/paratheraps improve/change color drastically as they get older .. are the catemaco type hard to come by?

also, on the scale of 10 (with red terror at 10) where does the fenestratus fall into? thanks again
 
They used to be hard to find, but I've seen them quite a bit locally the last year. As the fish matures the colors will continue to change, much like a red devil or midas. The fish can end up all red, or have some white or black markings as well, but it will definitely look better than it is now. Right now is the fugly stage...

For the scale, are you talking aggression? I'd put them at the most aggressive fish I've ever kept, more so than festae. Mine is swimming solo in a 60 as she killed all her tankmates; lyonsi, argentae, pleco, and giant danios well before she was 5".
 
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