Once again-Please ID this for me

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I'm not saying its a firefish . I'm saying a male estherae(R) not (O), as the males of the orange variant are generally a pale orange or peach color,was bred to a female firefish and the picture above is the result. Its not impossible that it has been line bred to produce the vibrant color but the pattern on the face makes me question the viability of it being a pure estherae. That said ,I didn't breed the fish and without seeing it in person it is a tough call. The fact that he put the fish on here for ID to start with tells me he doesn't know the background of this fish and that itself leads me to speculation.
 
Metriaclima estherae (Red) not O, and most likely a cross as suggested above. M. estherae O males have a blueish sheen to them, but certainly not anything like the fish shown in this thread. Most O males are rather washed out looking compared to their female siblings.

Red males are ultra rare in the wild, but have been line bred in captivity to the extent that the males can be as vibrant as the females. Having said that, I have yet to see one that has the markings shown on the face/gill plates as this fish. Those markings (which are common on some of the man made peacocks) are certainly not typical for any variant of M. zebra.
 
RDFISHGUY;1589475; said:
I'm not saying its a firefish . I'm saying a male estherae(R) not (O), as the males of the orange variant are generally a pale orange or peach color,was bred to a female firefish and the picture above is the result. Its not impossible that it has been line bred to produce the vibrant color but the pattern on the face makes me question the viability of it being a pure estherae. That said ,I didn't breed the fish and without seeing it in person it is a tough call. The fact that he put the fish on here for ID to start with tells me he doesn't know the background of this fish and that itself leads me to speculation.
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Your right-
I bought it from a Local fish store-
How could one know it's background....
 
ak - if you're looking for a definitive answer, I'm afraid that you'll be waiting a long time. Short of some DNA work performed on this fish, there's no telling with 100% certainty exactly what you have.

Either way, it's a great looking fish!
 
I agree with what RD. said.

To add, I'll go as far to opine that the fish in question appears to have a significant dose of metriaclima estherae in it, but will stop short of categorizing it as 'full' m. estherae of any color morph. It's quite plausible it may be the offspring of an m. estherae hybrd X m. estherae.

I'll also add if you have any other m. estherae in your tank and wish to breed them, it's recommended to remove this fish from that tank due to its apparent questionable lineage.
 
I'll also add if you have any other m. estherae in your tank and wish to breed them, it's recommended to remove this fish from that tank due to its questionable lineage.
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Good point, and I concur.
 
Thanks-
This fish was only bought for coloration-Nothing more-
He or she or whatever I have....Lives in an extremely packed 125 gal community tank with a wide variety of fish.....


And I dont care about a deffinate(sp) answer-
Just dont like being told it's one things to find out it is another......
 
wow! that is one beautiful fish! you better keep him
 
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