Identification - A. cacatuoides? No banding

[Drayden Farci]

We have a batch of wild A. cacatuoides from Peru, but 30-50% of the fish look like the images attached and do not have any dark banding on the stomach, and the colors appear slightly off for A. cacatuoides. Is this normal variation? The pale appearance does not appear to be related to stress, and there are males and females present. They appear to have the thick horizontal band, but it fades out half the time.

 

[Henry_Tan]

The first picture is Apistogramma atahualpa.

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[Mike Wise]

I tend to agree with Henry on the 1st photo, but can't be 100% sure. The photos aren't good (large) enough.

 

[Drayden Farci]

Our A. atahualpa have rounded caudal fins, darker bodies, and more vibrant/visible red/orange coloration. These have the subtle lyretail of an A. cacatuoides, different markings on the lower half of the caudal fin, almost no red/orange coloration aside from the yellow on the belly, and very little coloration in the dorsal.

Male in A. cacatuoides batch showing yellow face, but no other coloration, lyre tail, and alternating bands on the lower half of the tail.

Female A. atahualpa

Male A. atahualpa. Observe the difference in coloration between this and the top image. Also note the vertical banding that is present under the blue sheen of the fish. The tail is also round and the dorsal does not trail as far back over the tail.

Do these images help? I just found it odd that they look drastically different.

 

[Henry_Tan]

If you mentioned that they have lyretail. It could be Apistogramma huascar

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