Syns or Bifaciatus? :S

[glenbo]

Hi will take some pics later.

I'm confused i bought my 'bifaciatus' as a 1" Juvi and it has grown rapidly to about 5" and has out grown everything in its tank, but still it is at the bottom of the peckign order, is more gentle than any of my Severums and regurly gets beat up by my smaller Green Terror and Texas.

I heard these things were crazy killers!

So i'm starting to think i have a Synspila and not a Bifaciatus.

Can anybody tell me the differences?

 

[flowerpower]

Relative to severums, both are aggressive.
Bifas have a horizontal stripe that runs from the base of the tail to the gill plate. On a synspilum this stripe does not reach the gill plate. It ends in the back half of the fishes body.
Another difference is that Bifas have black markings between the dorsal fin and the lateral line, syns do not.
Trying posting a pic so that someone can accurately id your fish.

 

[glenbo]

Just took some, its really hard to get a good picture because the fish is rarely at the front of the tank

heres another were you can see its body but behind a pink con

 

[glenbo]

bump

 

[buddha1200]

that is a synspilum,i have raised and bred syns and in my experience they are pretty much peaceful unless provoked.

 

[FishingOut]

Im going to have to disagree with whats been said here.

This is not a relative of a severum, Or anything even close in temperment, Maybe diet. These fish do have serious mean streaks, With the right stocking this can be avoid though.
Its mostly colored like a Syn, But the facial markings look much more like Bifa. There is a rare group of Syn's that do have facial pearls, but those are a rare breed.
I think female Vieja hybrid. Probable Syn x Bifa

 

[Modest_Man]

It doesn't look like the synspilum I've raised. The blue on the face in particular along with the red tail.

With that said, the Paratheraps family all look quite similar when smaller and the photography isn't the best to ID off of. There are also a bunch of Paratheraps mutts around right now...

Also, 5" is too small to determine the aggression level of a fish that can get 14" pretty easily.

Here are some of my P. synspilum I've owned at about the same size as your fish.

 

[glenbo]

Im going to have to disagree with whats been said here.

This is not a relative of a severum, Or anything even close in temperment, Maybe diet. These fish do have serious mean streaks, With the right stocking this can be avoid though.
Its mostly colored like a Syn, But the facial markings look much more like Bifa. There is a rare group of Syn's that do have facial pearls, but those are a rare breed.
I think female Vieja hybrid. Probable Syn x Bifa

I never said it was a relative of the Heros species, i just said it is the biggest and most gentle fish in the tank, even more so than my Severums.

Bare in mind guys i am in South West England so we dont get half of the stuff you guys get, also we don't tend to get as much crap (tons of hybrids, flowerhorn rejects etc)

My lfs is so against hybrids that i had to get my blood parrots and flowerhorns from a importer.

There is of course a chance it could be a hybrid, but unlikely (hope that didnt cause offense because it wasen't meant to)

So any other opinions? if it is a Biffa i doubt i'll keep it because it will probably kill all my stock, if its a Synspila i will keep it for life.

Btw it is very pearly like mentioned earlier.

 

[glenbo]

bump

 

[the animal guy]

it's not a Syn I tell u that. At least not a pure one..

But I would guess bifa. If not, both.hahahahah