Michigan Cichlid Association

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: neilsarah on November 11, 2013, 06:31:36 PM

Title: Species Help Please
Post by: neilsarah on November 11, 2013, 06:31:36 PM
Can anyone help me out here. This was sold to me as a eureka jake. Every picture i find of a eureka jake looks nothing like this. Any ideas?
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: Regalblue on November 11, 2013, 06:44:20 PM
Definitely not an Eureka,  it's not even an Aulonocara .
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: neilsarah on November 11, 2013, 06:50:21 PM
Seems to remind me of a hap. I has red showing through a little but like you said does not resemble A peacock at all.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: four_by_ken on November 11, 2013, 06:57:20 PM
Almost Red Empress... ish.

Looks to be a mutant maybe.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: neilsarah on November 11, 2013, 07:04:58 PM
I bought it as a juvi at a pretty reputable store so I would hope not. But I guess you never know.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: danielratti on November 11, 2013, 07:33:32 PM
Its a hybrid that is popping up locally as a red emp... you get it from preuss?
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: neilsarah on November 11, 2013, 07:45:37 PM
No. They had it listed as a eureka though. It was so small when I bought it I didn't think anything of it. Now that I've had it a while I actually started researching eureka jakes and realized it wasn't even close.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: lilscoots on November 11, 2013, 08:06:11 PM
Looks like a red empress hybrid of some sort, definitely not a eureka or an empress for that matter.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: Rob S on November 11, 2013, 08:34:20 PM
Red Empress juvenile or a hybrid from that family.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: Sean on November 11, 2013, 10:00:26 PM
I've seen chilotilapia rhoadesii fry that look just like this
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: lilscoots on November 11, 2013, 10:41:19 PM
Head is all wrong for chilotilapia, and the striping is off as well.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: danielratti on November 11, 2013, 10:48:15 PM
Way too much red in the tail also.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: African cichlid Keeper on November 11, 2013, 11:00:58 PM
Looks like a red empress hybrid of some sort, definitely not a eureka or an empress for that matter.

I agree
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: Ron on November 12, 2013, 11:40:05 AM
The quickness of so many resorting to calling something they haven't yet seen a hybrid helps illustrate the problem with hybrids even being in the hobby.  :(

One person here has correctly identified it. CrazyCoolPeacocks, job well done!  ;)

The striping, solid double-stripes high on the body at a slightly angle, screams Chilotilapia. The head-shape gives it away as C. rhoadesii rather than C. euchilus (those are the only 2 Chilotilapia species). The head shape might appear off to some because it's such a young fish. FWIW, the fish pictured is a male and with such early color, he should look really nice as he gets older.

FWIW, if it had stripping on it at the time you bought it, that would have given it away as not being a peacock of any kind. It could have been a tank labeling error, and obviously the staff didn't know any better, but perhaps we can't expect everyone to know everything so I'm not sure how much I'd fault them unless they'd argued the fact that fish was a eureka jake.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: neilsarah on November 13, 2013, 04:56:04 AM
Thank you Ron! And it did not have the stripes on it when I bought it. Thanks again for your help. Can't wait to see him when he is fully colored.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: lilscoots on November 13, 2013, 10:22:01 AM
I agree that striping looks chilotilapia, but the face is still all wrong for rhodesii, it doesn't have the "roman nose" (the face is too pointed) and the mouth is too high and forward on the face.  I've never raised these from fry, but I have a rhodesii, and I've raised other fry with "different" face structures, and that structure is there from very young, they don't "grow into it" in my experience.  I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time, I'll agree with you if his face shapes up in the future.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: PowerCerg One on November 13, 2013, 08:44:00 PM
I agree that striping looks chilotilapia, but the face is still all wrong for rhodesii, it doesn't have the "roman nose" (the face is too pointed) and the mouth is too high and forward on the face.  I've never raised these from fry, but I have a rhodesii, and I've raised other fry with "different" face structures, and that structure is there from very young, they don't "grow into it" in my experience.  I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time, I'll agree with you if his face shapes up in the future.

Dimidiochromis compressiceps don't have the jaw when they are young. They look much more normal.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: Regalblue on November 13, 2013, 08:50:28 PM
I agree that striping looks chilotilapia, but the face is still all wrong for rhodesii, it doesn't have the "roman nose" (the face is too pointed) and the mouth is too high and forward on the face.  I've never raised these from fry, but I have a rhodesii, and I've raised other fry with "different" face structures, and that structure is there from very young, they don't "grow into it" in my experience.  I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time, I'll agree with you if his face shapes up in the future.

Dimidiochromis compressiceps don't have the jaw when they are young. They look much more normal.
you mean their chinpimple ?
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: PowerCerg One on November 13, 2013, 09:23:52 PM
I agree that striping looks chilotilapia, but the face is still all wrong for rhodesii, it doesn't have the "roman nose" (the face is too pointed) and the mouth is too high and forward on the face.  I've never raised these from fry, but I have a rhodesii, and I've raised other fry with "different" face structures, and that structure is there from very young, they don't "grow into it" in my experience.  I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time, I'll agree with you if his face shapes up in the future.

Dimidiochromis compressiceps don't have the jaw when they are young. They look much more normal.
you mean their chinpimple ?

That's some acne
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: danielratti on November 13, 2013, 09:50:46 PM
Mines just fat.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: Sean on November 13, 2013, 09:59:36 PM
in the ones that I've seen the head seems to get more sloped as they grow up. I've noticed the head starting to look normal around 4"
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: Sean on November 13, 2013, 10:01:21 PM
The quickness of so many resorting to calling something they haven't yet seen a hybrid helps illustrate the problem with hybrids even being in the hobby.  :(

One person here has correctly identified it. CrazyCoolPeacocks, job well done!  ;)

The striping, solid double-stripes high on the body at a slightly angle, screams Chilotilapia. The head-shape gives it away as C. rhoadesii rather than C. euchilus (those are the only 2 Chilotilapia species). The head shape might appear off to some because it's such a young fish. FWIW, the fish pictured is a male and with such early color, he should look really nice as he gets older.

FWIW, if it had stripping on it at the time you bought it, that would have given it away as not being a peacock of any kind. It could have been a tank labeling error, and obviously the staff didn't know any better, but perhaps we can't expect everyone to know everything so I'm not sure how much I'd fault them unless they'd argued the fact that fish was a eureka jake.
Thanks Ron
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: Ron on November 14, 2013, 07:55:56 AM
Dimidiochromis compressiceps don't have the jaw when they are young. They look much more normal.
you mean their chinpimple ?
No, he means that they start out skinny like all other fry, then get their thin, wedge shape as they grow older.

FWIW, I think the "chinpimple" is caused by abrasion. I've raised them without the fish getting that and personally find the chinpimples really ugly.
Title: Re: Species Help Please
Post by: four_by_ken on November 14, 2013, 08:00:27 AM
I think the reason everyone went towards a hybrid is that it was bought as a peacock... so, if there was anything peacock about it... it would have been hybrid.

Now, looking at it again... it does look just like my rhodessi.