Vieja ID

[cichlidsickness]

Picked these up as vieja argentea at the 1 inch size from my LFS. Quickly realized they werent argentea when i noticed the red tint on the tails. Theyre about 4 inches now. Im thinking hartwegi? Im not sure since ive only kept viejas once!

First 3 pics are the same fish. Last 2 pics are another fish of the same species. Need an ID!

 

[tlindsey]

Picked these up as vieja argentea at the 1 inch size from my LFS. Quickly realized they werent argentea when i noticed the red tint on the tails. Theyre about 4 inches now. Im thinking hartwegi? Im not sure since ive only kept viejas once!

First 3 pics are the same fish. Last 2 pics are another fish of the same species. Need an ID!

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Looks like a Hartwegi to me.

 

[kno4te]

Looks like a Hartwegi to me.

+1

 

[duanes]

Agree with Tom, could be hartwegii. One of the main ways to differentiate hartwegii from other Vieja, is bit of an overbite. I altered your photo to see if that trait might be more visible, and it seems reasonable.

notice the slightly different mouth structure in a similar size, and color bifasciata

 

[duanes]

It amazes me that a store could mix up maskaheros argentea with other Vieja, they look the same as juvies, as they do adults.

 

[cichlidsickness]

I mentioned that i owned another vieja species, and they were indeed bifasciatus. I thought the freckling and the red kinda resembled them, but i remember the bifasciatus having more yellow so i wasnt sure. Hartwegi it is! Thanks yall....its been a while since my last MFK post!

 

[duanes]

Colors on Vieja can vary from catch location to catch location of the ancestors.
One location can be yellow, another red, and still be the same species, below is the same one I posted above only a year or so older.

And as you can see, they change drastically at different ages.
So color is not a reliable ID determiner.

 

[cichlidsickness]

Colors on Vieja can vary from catch location to catch location of the ancestors.
One location can be yellow, another red, and still be the same species, below is the same one I posted above only a year or so older.

And as you can see, they change drastically at different ages.
So color is not a reliable ID determiner.

Interesting....i guess ive seen some slight color variation in other cichlid species as well now that you mention it. I've definitely seen some more color and freckling in the past inch or so and think it would be cool to see some other colors come thru as they grow.

Now for sexing the 2! I havent looked into it yet, but im guessing this species is monomorphic since the other few vieja ive looked up were visually indistinguishable between males and females. I had 6 but they killed themselves down to these two within a couple weeks, so i recently separated them as i dont think they were killing because they were pairing. Guess im off to read about sexing the hartwegi!

 

[duanes]

Here's an example of one species, yet slightly different color variations from different catch locations.
Chuco intermedia

now another male Chuco intermedia from a differentriver system, not that far afield