what's thisone

[miquel]

yesterday i saw some apisto's at my lfs and i couln't identify. they told me it was eunotus but i've got my doubts about that when i look at it's tailspot i find it smaller then that on the pictures i've seen

this is it

can anyone help me identify this fish

 

[Mike Wise]

It is a eunotus-complex species, but not A. (cf.) eunotus. The lower dorsal fin, lateral band that rests high on the flanks, small caudal spot & yellow pectoral fins are characteristics of A. sp. Nanay/Melgar. The spot looks different from Nanay, which has a more square spot, but it could be partly hidden by shiny scales. It is always hard to ID a fish from just one photo. Pictures of the female would be helpful, too.

 

[miquel]

ok here's a picture of the female

and a few more of the male but they are not as good as the one already posted

thanks, miquel

 

[Mike Wise]

The male still looks like a cruzi-like species, but the female does not. Notice that the male's lateral band sits higher next to the caudal spot. The female's lateral band sits toward the center of the caudal spot. The female looks more like a resticulosa-complex species. Does the female always show a lateral band that is narrow & zigzag???

 

[miquel]

that would be bad, but not so bad the lfs had some other females but they were a bit damaged in the dorsalfin. acording to the people in the lfs there had been some nest in that tank so there should be at least one female that is the same species and now i know whatto look for it should be doable.

but here a som more pics of the female, the male is in my opinoin a. sp melgar i've compared him with the pic's in CA2 and its a perfect match, so now the only question is if its the same species or not?

 

[Mike Wise]

I agree with you. The male looks like A. sp. Nanay/Melgar. I still am not certain about the female. It would not hurt to buy another female.

 

[miquel]

ok thanks i'll go to the lfs tommorow and buy another female

 

[miquel]

ok i switched the female today for another one, and bought another female extra, this female was in a diffrent tank and the salesman didn't know what species it was, but the males looked very much like the man i already have, and this female looked a lot like the drawing of a female in ca2 and she was bright yellow.

the female from the other tank(sorry i had to use the flash):

on this picture her caudal bloch is not visible but she has one that quite smal just like the female on the second picture

and the female from the same tank as the male, she's currently in a tank with sp maulbruter juveniles to try and get her dorsal back in the original shape.

 

[miquel]

ok here are a few new pic's of the females to help with the indentification.

female 1

 

[miquel]

female 2

 

[miquel]

and two more of the male just to be sure

 

[Mike Wise]

The females look like the same species as the male. They look like A. sp. Nanay/Melgar.