Strange Fish

[umberk]

I work at a pet shop and in our fish shipment we got 2 unidentified fish that we dont normally carry. It looks like a cichlid, has been placed in a tank with firemouths and small jack dempsys and has been doing well. These two are very young, only about 1.5-2 inches long.

Sorry the picture is blurry but my camera phone doesnt take great pics.

 

[WILDER]

Post the pic in tropical discussion. Will get more help identifying the fish over there.

Welcome to the board.

 

[umberk]

Wont let me post there for some reason.

 

[Wills]

Quite hard to ID this small and with that photo do you have any others this is a little blurry. It looks like they might be very young Jaguar Cichlids? Or one of their relatives - they are all highly aggressive fish as they grow and will reach between 8-20 inches depending on species and gender.

Like I its a guess but it might be right. If you can get some clearer pictures that would be great particularly of the mouth as that will help rule out the worst case scenario which is that they are Dovvi cichlids which are absolute monsters.

Wills

 

[Inchworm]

Hi umberk

I'll move your thread for you. If you click the link in the email we sent you, your account will be validated and you will be able to post everywhere on the forum.

 

[Davo86]

In the pic they are obviously quite stressed and very pale which makes id'ing them even harder than it already is tbh, If you can take another pic of them once they have settled into the tank and their natural colours have returned, it might make is somewhat easier. Although as Wills states its most likely to be one of the Parachromis species, and probably a Jag if your in the UK and work at your average pet shop

 

[umberk]

In the pic they are obviously quite stressed and very pale which makes id'ing them even harder than it already is tbh, If you can take another pic of them once they have settled into the tank and their natural colours have returned, it might make is somewhat easier. Although as Wills states its most likely to be one of the Parachromis species, and probably a Jag if your in the UK and work at your average pet shop

They have small mouths shaped similar to convicts mouths rather than jack dempsy/oscar shaped mouths, again they are small. I wont be able to get a better picture because I dont have a better camera. I was thinking jaguar cichlid when I was looking at pictures on google. The color in the picture is pretty much the color they are in the tanks. Originally they were placed with some tetras by a coworker but they killed a few of those.

I work in the US at a Petsmart(didnt notice before but there was a sticker on a bottle in the pic that said that) and I'm pretty versed with many types of fish. We never get jaguar cichlids and most pics online or in books depicts older specimens. I will try to get a coworker to get a better picture for me. I just want to get these fish a decent home with some knowledge of the fish.

 

[Wills]

Yeah the mouth thing was more about specific forms and size of teeth rather than similarities to other species.

They really do look like Jags and killing the tetras is quite typical of them. The general guide on how to keep them is 75 gallons minimum for a lone fish ie no other tank mates and then tank mates are usually accepted around 200-250 gallons. For that reason they are best kept as "wet pets" as they are highly interactive they are easy to relate too. These fish are much more aggressive than oscars and are part of one of the most predatory species of cichlid they can easily kill the majority of fish you can imagine.

Wills