"true" green terror

[thetim6]

I saw an arcticle a while back that got my curiousity started, but left the topic alone for a while. I came across some stuff a few days ago that said that the true green terror, aquidens rivulatus, is very rare. I own a "green terror", but cant tell if it is the rivulatus, or the closely related flametail, or gold suam, i have only seen it referrred to scientifically as aquidens sp. no species name. i was wondering if anyone knew any ways to really tell them apart, becasue mine favors pictures of both the different fishes that i have seen. i knw a lot of the aquidens genus look alike but any deffinate details that i could seperate out from the others so i know what i have in my tank. ??

 

[Gibbo]

It would be difficult I think... how big is your fish? I'd guess that the different types are geographical differences, much the same as some Geophagus species hail from one 'type' or complex. There may not be enough info out there to truly know, unless you can find out lineage through lfs but your fish may very well be tank bred anyway.

 

[thetim6]

he is about eight inches long, maybe nine and a half with tail. i have had him since 2 inches, had him for probably almost a year. the fish i ahve seen are very similar, the only difference being (not always) teal, green coloring on the lower half of the face. idk, but if my fish is not a green terror, then i would love to see just how aggressive a green terror really is.

 

[mostanks]

(aka. Green Terror, Flame Tail, Gold Saum or Silver Saum)
now this species is one subject to a lot of confusion... and i will try at straighten it out.... there first Green Terror to enter the hobby was small with a maximum length of about 6" it's scientific name was Aquidens Rivulatus... it looked a lot like the blue Acara but it was green..... then there was a new fish going round which was also being called the Green Terror though this new fish grew to a maximum of 12" and also had a brightly coloured tail... there was even more confusion when this new fish was found to have two different colour variations one with a Gold tail and one with a White tail.... these two different colour variations where due to different colonies of this species living in different areas.... the new fish's scientific name was Aquidens species cf. Rivulatus.... and this is the fish i'm going to show you.. this fish i find isn't very aggressive like it's name sake... and is actually quite placid and shy.. Green Terrors will also mature sexually at a young age.... my pair spawned 2 weeks after i got them at 1.5" and 2.5".. they are also quite easy to sex as the females look very different from the males.. the males genrally being more colorful..
http/members.tripod.com/~bigguapote2/new...reen3.jpg[/IMG]