Saxatilis or lepidota????

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RuiCorreia

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 3, 2010
11
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Portugal
I bought these 2 pikes as C. saxatilis, but they seem to me more like some lepidota or their synonim, edithae... they came from checs republik.

The smaller one is much more agressive than the bigger one, could it be a male??? In most of times the 4" one backs off or get bitten.

the smaller one 3"
DSCN0017.jpg


DSCN0085.jpg


the bigger one, 4"
DSCN0042-1.jpg

DSCN0033.jpg

DSCN0124.jpg


Best regards,

Rui
 
Both appear to be females to me, there appears to be a light stripe near the top of both of their dorsal fins with black dots in them. I would say that your best bet would be to call them Crenicichla "Saxatilis", no way of knowing what they really are unless you have a collection point, even then, there are so many around that aren't properly described by the scientific community that we just don't know for sure. They look great by the way.
 
Saxatilis have spangles, those fish have no spangling. They look more like the female Lepidota shown here http://www.oocities.com/vinnykutty/lepidotapage.html than they look like the Saxtilis I've seen. Technally, it's in the saxtilis group though.

How old/big are they? I know that the colors didn't start to come in on my female until she was nearly full grown. It's likely they will get more of the color as they age, but the spangling won't show up as they get older. If anything spangling reduces with age from what I've seen.
 
You can't really call them anything for sure unless you know the exact origin of them.
 
Look at this lepidota

http://www.crenicichla.com/art/steckbriefe/bilder/crenicichla_lepidota_1.jpg
http://www.crenicichla.com/art/steckbriefe/bilder/crenicichla_lepidota_2.jpg

or at this video, of Crenicichla cf. lepidota "venezuela", pair....
They have the same exactly the same color and pattern as mine.... both sexes have dark stripe on their dorsals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbkKdemDheI


... the blotch and the overall appearance its very similar, but without location, its very difficult I know...

just another question....
Males are always more agressive than females, right, so my little pike, could be a male, right!!!!!
The only issue that is troubling me, is that the smaller fish is beating up the larger one!!!!
 
Not sure, I only knew for sure that mine was female when she became old enough for the reds to come in on her fins and tummy. When I first got her she didn't have stripes or colors of any kind.
 
RuiCorreia;3982864; said:
Look at this lepidota

http://www.crenicichla.com/art/steckbriefe/bilder/crenicichla_lepidota_1.jpg
http://www.crenicichla.com/art/steckbriefe/bilder/crenicichla_lepidota_2.jpg

or at this video, of Crenicichla cf. lepidota "venezuela", pair....
They have the same exactly the same color and pattern as mine.... both sexes have dark stripe on their dorsals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbkKdemDheI


... the blotch and the overall appearance its very similar, but without location, its very difficult I know...

just another question....
Males are always more agressive than females, right, so my little pike, could be a male, right!!!!!
The only issue that is troubling me, is that the smaller fish is beating up the larger one!!!!
Click to expand...

It appears that you have made up your mind, so, I won't keep saying it after this. They both appear to be female to me bacause of the light/white sub-marginal stripe with black dots in the soft rays of the dorsal fins of both fish, better pics with extended dorsal fins would help to clarify this. As for what to call them. . . C. Lepidota was described in the middle of brazil, see the link from Vinny Kutty's site http://pikecichlid.com/lepidotapage.html , C. Saxatilis was described in Surniam, again, see Vinny Kutty's site link http://www.oocities.com/vinnykutty/saxatilispage.html .

Hope that doesn't muddy the water too much :ROFL:

Ray
 
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