Xingu 2 have red fading shades on their fins. This fish has the black and red laminate, which is a characteristic of the lugubrius-strigata group juveniles. In my opinion, I don’t think it’s X2.
Pike ID please thanks
- Thread starter HumanBean
- Start date
Yes, it’s gotta be C. dandara. There is only one black, lugubris-group, pike cichlid that has a prognathous jaw and a compressed head, C. dandara. We know that this fish is in the lugubris group because of its female sexing trait: the white line. There are some other crenicichla with these distinct traits, but those pikes all belong in the reticulata group. Female members of the reticulata group do not have white dorsal stripes, instead, they have red flags on their dorsals.
SInce it's sub-adult coloration, won't the laminate fade just as we have seen happen in juvenile C. sp Venezuela? The picture in Aqualog is an adult male by my guess, and the OP's herring bone pattern could be a sub-adult pattern. I've had a sub-adult johanna exihibit the exact herring bone pattern, and then drastically change to the dark variant.
From what I have seen, the red shade appears in X2 subadults and these species are similar to C. dandara and C. percna as they are prognathus and have compressed heads. Subadults also have an ocellate caudal spot. As they reach adulthood, the ocellate caudal spot turns very big and black. Their heads become more and more compressed as they mature and they also develop a black blotch on their humerus as they become adults. Because of their distinct subadult coloration, I suspect that X2 are one of the lugubris pikes that do not have the juvenile coloration characteristic to the members of the lugubris-strigata group, meaning they don't really have the black and red laminate trait.
Rapps' subadults:
Norbert Knaak's subadults (although actually, these guys look even younger, as their heads haven't flattened yet):
Norbert Knaack's adult:
JZX Singapore's adult: https://fb.watch/3x61HHtwdM/
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From this Crenicichla phylogeny report by Ed Burress: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jeb.13196 X2, C. dandara, and C. percna are closely related to each other.
A little off-topic: X2 is also pretty closely related to C. marmorata, likely because of the similarity in their adult head structures.
Almost forgot, very important to add: X2 always has barrings on its body at all stages of its life. OP's fish does not have these barrings, I'm pretty confident it is not X2.
A little off-topic: X2 is also pretty closely related to C. marmorata, likely because of the similarity in their adult head structures.
Almost forgot, very important to add: X2 always has barrings on its body at all stages of its life. OP's fish does not have these barrings, I'm pretty confident it is not X2.
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