Texas vs all those others

[teqvet]

Ok, I didn't want to blow up an ongoing thread so I am making one specifically for this discussion for myself. I tried looking back through the search history but there are so many posts it would literally take me hours to read through them all.

I was led to believe that the cyanogattatum (what is commonly sold as the true texas) is a completely different type of fish than the carpintis. They both are in the same species of under Hericthys, but other than they are very different fish. The Cyano gets to be about 3-4" larger than the carpintis, the cyano has bluer spots while the carpintis is much greener; the cyano has much smaller and very noticeable circular spots, while the carpintis has larger blotching/spangling almost instead of the very ordered circular spots that the cyano has; the cyano goes by the common name of 'texas' cichlid, while the carpintis goes by the name of Green texas cichlid, pearlscale cichlid, Blue Texas cichlid, and Lowland Cichlid.

I've seen other members saying that the cyano and carpintis are the same fish, and half of the other threads I read say theya re two completely different fish that just look similar.. very much like the african cynotilapia species.

Could someone please clear this up for me because I hate thinking I know something and informing others and then come to find out I did not know what I was talking about.

Thanks

 

[cchhcc]

There is quite a bit of work to do in that genus, but they are definitely two different fish. Go to cichlidae.com for good discussions about several of the Hericthys genus.

Everything you believed to be true is right on with the exception of size. Cyanos are at least as big as carps -- often bigger in my experience.

 

[D-Train]

Totally different fish. One is Hericthys cyanogattus and the other Hericthys carpinte.... They are classified as different species because the are different species, just classified under the same genus.

 

[teqvet]

There is quite a bit of work to do in that genus, but they are definitely two different fish. Go to cichlidae.com for good discussions about several of the Hericthys genus.

Everything you believed to be true is right on with the exception of size. Cyanos are at least as big as carps -- often bigger in my experience.

That's what I meant to have said. Cyano are upwards of 10-12" while carpintis (escondido) about 8-10"

thanks for the confirmation.

 

[wiseman82]

They are completely different fish, I currantly have some WC cyano's and they are very different from carpintas, the reason why people get so confused about them is because many people have never seen a pure stain of either fish, these fish are so mixed up in the market, same as the Midas Red Devils in the trade.

 

[Mike fail]

well a big problem with these two, is collection points, there are some many places you get get carpintis and cyano from. and each one can look completely different than another, it adds confusion, like escondido are a carpintis but feature worm pearls unlike most are carpintis collected from different areas.

 

[cichlidfish]

They are completely different fish, I currantly have some WC cyano's and they are very different from carpintas, the reason why people get so confused about them is because many people have never seen a pure stain of either fish, these fish are so mixed up in the market, same as the Midas Red Devils in the trade.

Geographic location is what separtes texas cichlids. It is all based on isolated genetics and adaptaion to different enviroments. So it depends on where the fish are collected from. Cyanos from the north will look different and tollorate cooler temps then escondidos in South Mexico. Cyanos can look different in Texas then in Northern Mexico. If the fish were that different, then they should be distiguished by genetic test, and maybe considered different spececies or subspecies. So w/ out thoses genetic test, it is really hard to say what is correct. The problem is that the texas cichlid or all herithchys haven't been studied enough, or they have, but the info isn't made public. That is why everyone is so confussed.