Synspilum Cichlid???

[Dark destroyer]

Hi Everyone,

I’m new to MFK and was hoping you guys could help me out.

I bought this fish from my lfs yesterday and they told me it was a Synspilum Cichlid. From my experience lfs are not to be trusted and get the names of fish wrong on a regular basis. I am hoping you guys could tell me if they are correct or what it actually is?
Thanks in advance

 

[dan518]

The black bar on synspilum will only reach a quarter of the way along the body,

 

[Dark destroyer]

The black bar on synspilum will only reach a quarter of the way along the body,

Okay so guessing I was correct about the lfs being wrong. Thanks dan. Don’t suppose you know what it is?

 

[Dark destroyer]

FYI he/she is about 8 inches long

 

[dan518]

Need some more pics and even then you can't always be sure, alot of the time you need the history of the fish.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Looks like a synspilum (melanurum), but Dan is correct about the black bar. Perhaps a fenestratum, they can have a more extensive black bar. Though, it will be impossible for us to tell you with 100% accuracy without knowing the parents of the fish, and the best we can give is guesses.

 

[dan518]

The two veija spp (melanura/synspilum and maculicauda) the bar only extends quarter of the way from the tail, paratheraps spp(bifasciatus, zonatus, Fenestratus, guttulatus, etc )the bar extends the full length of the body.

 

[duanes]

A couple photos to compare
Here are a couple pics of young melanurum (the name synspillum is no longer considered valid)

note the broken horizontal band

Now a young bifasciattum

as bifasciatta age another dark blotch becomes apparent above the lateral line

 

[the animal guy]

I see both Syn and fene in one

Very nice vieja