Petsmart Trimacs...Are they true trimacs?

[PoopSmart]

I have never seen juvenile trimacs, people always post pics of adult ones, but I wanna see the youngins so I can compare them to the ones I saw in the store.

Or does anyone know for sure if these are real? Or does anyone have any (petsmart ones)?

 

[Modest_Man]

I would personally treat them as low grade flowerhorns. Unless I knew 100% that I was getting the real deal (I.E. Jeff Rapps, etc.).

 

[ewurm]

With your username, you should be able to guess as to the quality....

 

[Wolf3101]

I looked at a few of them at PS this afternoon and they don't look like any baby flowerhorns I've ever seen.

Granted...the big two retailers are not known for the best information... but they rely on thier suppliers for fish identifycation. The price is low enough to grab a couple and grow them out.

 

[bigspizz]

Petsmart trimacs.....I think they look exactly like "true" trimacs........

 

[carpediem]

Funny, I was walking through Petsmart to buy some dog food yesterday and saw these guys in our local store as well...

Here is a pic of a young adult male and one of his male offspring. This male and the female I spawned him with were both purchased from Rapps. You be the judge...

IMO the Petsmart fish do not have the right head shape to be true trimacs. Their forhead should be more elongated moving their mouth more to the front.

 

[PoopSmart]

I have heard low grade flowerhorns, and that seems to make the most sense since I thought true Trimacs were relatively rare or expensive at that.

Yeah I don't trust them too much, but who knows, maybe I will buy a couple and put them in with my red devil and just grow them out a bit just out of curiosity...

Do you think I could grow one out in like a 20 long for a couple months though? because my red devil in my 55 is rather large and my 75 has some peaceful guys in it (severums and whatnot) although they keep them in the same tank as severums, which is retarded, but I don't plan on keeping them my whole life (unless I get another tank), I just want to see what they turn out to be.

BigSpizz keep me updated on yours because I want to see what it turns into and how aggressive it is to the other guys in that tank.

thanks

 

[carpediem]

I don't know, the more I look at those Petsmart fry, the harder I think it is to tell... Trimacs are not that hard to come by and they're fairly easy to spawn. There's no reason why Petsmart couldn't carry them. However, the fish in my local store were labeled "three spot cichlids" not trimacs. A three spot cichlid could be literally anything while a trimac, technically, should be a Amphilophus trimaculatus.

 

[bigspizz]

Mine have no head spot. Would that be an instant dis-qualifier? or is this common at an inch? Three spot cichlid is certainly the "common" name for a trimac though. The other "three spot" in their name fish, are in no way easily confused with a trimac. Jut thought I would point that out.

 

[carpediem]

Mine have no head spot. Would that be an instant dis-qualifier? or is this common at an inch? Three spot cichlid is certainly the "common" name for a trimac though. The other "three spot" in their name fish, are in no way easily confused with a trimac. Jut thought I would point that out.

Right, but I could take any fish and claim that it is a "three spot cichlid" because that doesn't really mean anything specific. Kind of like "Red Terror" can be festae or uropthalmus or any hybrid resembling either species. However, if I say Amphilophus festae or Amphilophus trimaculatus, it can only be that specific species of fish. This is why I hate pet trade names. Just a point...

I'll be interested to see what your fish look like as they mature. Trimacs show a lot of color variation, especially as juvies. My young adult male showed a lot of variation when he was younger, especially when he was spawning. Now he is a nice emerald green color and stays pretty much the same. Sometimes maybe a little lighter, sometimes a little darker. The female, however, gets dark and has markings when she spawns or when she's pissed off...