Red Head Tapajos Or Not?

[kaivalagi]

[font="arial]One of the Tapajos doesn't look like the others now, I am not sure if it is getting beaten up lots or is a different species of Geophagus, I got a picture but not a very good one, note the orange tint in the eye and the lack of striping pattern in the tail, instead there is more of a red tint top and bottom:

Any ideas? Stress? Something else?[/font]

 

[kaivalagi]

Got some better pics taken

Here's one of the little fellas who is what I expect to see for a tapajos:

And here is the one that just doesn't match the other 3:

Thanks for any help figuring this out

The odd one out does seem to spend time on it's own away from the others quite a bit (not all the time)

 

[star4]

I can see what you mean from the slight differences in the pictures. I have no experience with these at all. I dont think there is a definate answer but I have Brazilliensis, which I have had for about 3 weeks. These are constantly changing their colours, the two that spawned most of the time no longer have their eye stripe, but as soon as it gets to feeding time the stripe comes back. Could just be a geo thing (mood fish lol) and the one with the least colour is bottom of the pack. I have found with my frontosa (I know african just an example lol) the dominant alpha male has fantastic blue finnage, but the smaller male his fins are almost white, your paler one could be the lower male? I would just keep a close eye on it, watch he is feeding ok and watch out for any flicking or stringy poo just in case its a bacterial infection. It could just be still a little stressed from the recent move into the other tank and is adjusting.

I'm no help whatsoever I know

 

[kaivalagi]

lol, no some reassurance is good I did wonder whether the colouration difference could be from stress/ heirachy establishing etc, just none of the other 4 ever had than red tint on the fins and eyes.
He/She is feeding just fine, all of them are seriously greedy guts...they now know what the turkey baster is for and when I put that into the water they start crowding round it lol
I may need to up the feeding, but I am always concious that I might be overfeeding...they're getting plenty though

Side note, I got a major scare the other night, I came home late from having a few drinks with my sis and all the lights were off, when the living room light went on I saw all my baby tapas with very dark colouration sitting in grooves in the sand beside rocks that they'd made...I got the ammonia test out straight away and by the time I got the result they were up and about again....never seen fish do that to sleep before...scared the cr4p out of me lol I thought they'd all curled up and died...plus I'd had a few drinks, not a good combination! Every day something new, I love this hobby...

 

[minxfishy]

I would agree that it is likely to be the less dominant of the group and as such has less colouration, once they grow a bit you will be able to see better if it is a different fish, looks tapajos to me, but still really young to see much difference.

 

[kaivalagi]

I guess if it does turn out to be something different then it's a brucy bonus

Thanks ladies!