Thorichthys Sex And I.d Please?

[GShorty1981]

Hi this guy was sold to me about a year ago as a thorichthys aureus by maidenhead aquatics, he was about 1" i paid £6 for him, i gave him to a friend about 6 months ago and today he give him back, hes in my 75g with about 7 baby severums i'm growing out, 2 adult angels, festivum and a few barbs and corys, he is about 5" and looks to be close to fully grown.

However from google images, he looks nothing like a aureus or a ellioti, he just looks like a more colourful firemouth with yellow sheen and blue spotting.

What is he and what sex is it?

 

[star4]

90% sure its Ellioti Male, but I sold mine a while back so cant go and check, definately not Aureus, they are much more blue spotted and on the tail. Could also be a metico (not sure on the spelling) they are very silimar to the ellioti more yellow I believe, Wills has/had one he would be best to check with

 

[GShorty1981]

He looks alot more yellow/red in real life than in the pic, could it have less spotting because its female? any other opinions guys?

 

[balajake]

Females have a splodge on the dorsal fin. That's a male imo

 

[GShorty1981]

Ahh like Texas, Trimacs, flowerhorns etc must be a CA thing (the splotch)

Ahh well thats a good thing its male as male fish tend to be prettier (except in Festae etc) do you think he will colour up into something better or is this what they tend to look like?

He hasn't got the blue lipstick like Elliotis tend to have.

 

[thereverendturtle]

Looks like a bigger version of the aureus I bought...

 

[minnnt]

Not all female Thorichthys' have the dorsal fin splodge. The Mixteco's do, (blue, gold and green) but as far as i am aware, Ellioti, Meeki and Aureus don't. Unsure of Passionis though.

I am tempted to agree with Star4.

Here is a picture of my old one that was bred by Star.

 

[star4]

Sorry it took me ages to find the pictures (too many pictures of my fish lol)

Elliotti pair, male top.

Aureus

 

[GShorty1981]

So do you all think hes a Ellioti?

 

[minnnt]

I would be inclined to say ellioti. There is a blue version of aureus which is what I think star has. Normal aureus is very similar to ellioti/maculpinnis afaik.

Farmed versions of thorichthys are rarely anything like wilder strains so it may well indeed be an aureus.

 

[GShorty1981]

hes changed colour today, hes really red on the bottom like a Meeki now with a yellow body and a bit more spangling on the body

 

[minnnt]

Try and get a pic in a week or so when he has settled back in. That would probably be more representable of his true colourings.

 

[star4]

Meeki should be more darker grey - charcol colouration on the top (although a lot nowadays are very pale ) I am inclided to state its an Elliotti but I have never seen a mixteco "in the flesh" and I cant always go on library pictures.

Minnt, the aureus I was just fish sitting for a while, not mine they are very different to the elliotti

 

[minnnt]

There are two kinds of aureus though... the normals and the blues which are quite different to each other let alone ellioti.

I would link to another forum that has an excellent thread on mixteco's but would probably get banned. Lmao.

 

[star4]

It gets so confusing sometimes with some species being basically the same just colour differences depending on where they were caught, it would be so much easier if fish were just labelled.

Thorichthys sp. manus, jurua, belem, tapajos, beni etc like the geophagus tapajos and the severum belem. The problem is then people arguing that their fish is from that river.