Blue Acara And Green Acara In Love? Lol

[Glenbo1981]

I bought a true Blue Acara today (Aequdins Pulcher)...I already had a Green Acara in my tank (Aequedins Latifrons) both are around 2.5-3"

Its hard to different them in the pics,mainly because cameras do not show colours very well...often it blurs them,and makes them look less colourful than they are in the tank,the less colourful one of the two is the Blue Acara (he has gold tips on his fins) and the brighter is the Green Acara (he has silver tips on his fins).

Since the BA has been added to the tank these 2 have been flirting like crazy...no fighting at all just flicking and following eachother around..never leaving eachother for a second!

There behavior reminds me of whe nmy Kribs where courting eachother,there colours seem to brigten when they are close also.

Are these pairing up? if they are what will the hybrids be like?

 

[snowflake311]

Dude that looks like 2 blue acaras to me. The darker one looks like a female and the lighter one looks like a male. I would bet money in a few days they will spawn. You will have fry soon. I have a breeding pair they look like that. Green acaras are blue acaras same fish different name for a slightly differant strain.

 

[meguro]

You're going to need to get someone to properly ID them, you were saying one of them was coerlapunctatus earlier.

 

[england]

left one i would deffo say acara, right one on otherhand iam in two minds.
got any closer clearer pics?

 

[Amerce]

I had a Aequidens sp. "Goldsaum" and a Aequidens latrifons that tango'd togther (after being told by their owner that they were both males) ended up with a tank of over 100 fry !!!

Kept 2 and they pester the life out of each other (males) so will have to separate them soon.

Moral of the story is that if it is an Aequidens then they can breed together.

 

[River Dog]

They do look like Blue acara's to me, but as you say they look different in a photograph unless you are a top notch photographer. I don't know if the mods allow me to advertise, but there are some experts on Oddball Express who may be able to give you a more definite I.D.

 

[Glenbo1981]

I emailed a guy with some pics of the original Acara and they said they 99% sure its a Latifrons.

I think my camera doesent show it properly.

The original Acara is much much more colourful and has the silver stripe on the top of his fin with blue speckles underneath and his body is green.

The new Acara has blue on his face and body,lighter colours and has a gold line on the top of his fin with feint blue speckles. (pulcher)

The face is a slightly different shape also.

Still I'm sure these guys will hybridise pretty easily,they are near enough identical and thye are flickng at eachother non stop.

In order of the pics...the new one (the one i think is the true blue acara is)

in these positions

Left
Left
Right
Right
Right

 

[Glenbo1981]

This is a pic i found on Google of a true BA

Heres a Latifrons

both look identical to my pair with the only notable differene is the colour of the top fin

 

[River Dog]

If they end up being different as you suspect, they will hybridise and sound like they are in the process of doing just that. I am not a fan of hybrids, as too many people sell the fry as one species or the other and that's how the Vieja/Paratheraps genus is in such a mess. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you would do that, its just my point of view on hybrid fish.

Whatever they end up being, your tank is full of colour and looks great.

 

[meguro]

Perhaps we could blame the taxonomists for not keeping up? Or just writing bad descriptions to begin with?

 

[Glenbo1981]

Sorry i got it the wrong war round heres the email.

Hi Glen, my first question is; Why did you buy the fish from two different sources?? It looks to me that you have got two different Aequidens. I am 99% sure you have a female of Aequidens pulcher and a male of Aequidens latifrons. The Blue Acara has a white line on the top of the dorsal, the Aequidens latifrons have a darker line up to red color on the top of the dorsal fin. You can look at the fishes on my homepage. I’ve done something wrong when I translate the page to Norwegian, I have delete the English version. It will be back later. But click in the beginning on Aequidens pulcher and enlarge the photo and scroll down to see them all.

You see the plastic bag with several small A. latifrons and you see the rim on the dorsal is more yellow and on the adult fish it’s red. So you better run to one of the store and buy more of one of the type, not to produce ####s.

On your last photo you can see the male Aequidens latifrons to the right, with even red eyes, and the female Blue Acara to the left.



Alf



Cichlid-Power



Alf Stalsberg,

Olav Flaetensvei 3A,

N-3280 Tjodalyng,

Norway.

Prv. phone +47-33124736

Mobil; +47- 930 580 39

E-mail; alf.stalsberg@c2i.net

Web; [URL="http/home.c2i.net/Cichlid-Power"]http/home.c2i.net/Cichlid-Power[/URL]

 

[snowflake311]

So I was looking around. There are a few 'Aequidens'.

'Aequidens' pulcher - Found in Trinidad off of Venezuela
'Aequidens' coeruleopunctatus - Panama
'Aequidens' latifrons - Columbia in the Rio magdalenen
'Aequidens' sapayensis - Ecuador
Gold acara - not sure

All look almost exactly alike. BUT have slight color differences and are found in different areas of south America. I personally think they all were at one time the same fish. But over time living in different areas breeding with only fish of that area they started to change slightly. If the 2 were to breed I personally don't think it would be that bad these fish are SO very closely related they are almost the same. In fact many of the "Blue acaras" in trade are not 100% pure because of confusion identifying.

 

[Joller]

i have the same problem. they pair and breed and you get hybrid babies. all the spawn just look like aequidens pulcher. so i'm getting rid of my latifrons.

 

[Glenbo1981]

Who says im gonna push the babys back into the trade?

I'm just gonna let nature run its course.

 

[snowflake311]

No I'm not saying you would but it happens even on the big farms. Most blue acaras are mutts.