What is this?

[Apistt_ed]

Hello everyone, I picked up these wild fish from a swap meet this morning and have been stuck trying to ID them since. They were labeled as A.sp Apache. I can't really get a great picture of the one I believe is the male because he's a little too shy and I couldn't lure him to get a good enough shot.

Here is the picture of the large one.(the one I think is the female and has a yellowish tint)

http://www.freewebtown.com/specJ/AspApache1.JPG

another of the same one.

http://www.freewebtown.com/specJ/AspApache2.JPG

Here is the picture of the pair but the little one is pretty hard to see. I have noticed that of the two, they don't have the diagnostic red/orange facial markings, but both have the same number of crossbands. When frightened they don't really show the clear abdominal bands and this might be because of the dark substrate.

http://www.freewebtown.com/specJ/pair1.JPG

Thanks.

john

 

[Mike Wise]

John,

They seem to show all of the dark markings characteristic of A. sp. Masked/Masken (= Apache). It is a regani-complex fish that, among other features, doesn't have cross stripes on the tail. It only has 2 or 3 vertical stripe on the posterior edge of the tail fin. I normally don't use color markings on fish for identification. They are too variable from one fish to another.

 

[Apistt_ed]

thanks a bunch! and from the looks of it, A. sp Masken is widely distributed and obviously available at the moment.!