Apisto IDs!

[Zeaqua]

Hi all! A while back, I bought a pair of apistos sold as “cacatuoides” from a chain store. Now that they’re closer to adulthood, I’m starting to have doubts on their species. Here are a few photos! I do believe the darker one is a cacatuoides male, bc of his fins, huge mouth, and occasional color. The other, I have no idea. It is occasionally bright yellow with a black line down its side, or as shown here, a brown-yellow with blue dots on the face, faint black bars on its flank, and yellow fins. Any help would be appreciated!

[Guppysnail]

@anewbie may know. I love apistos but I’m lousy with id. 

[DallasCowboys16]

On 12/11/2023 at 7:18 PM, Zeaqua said:

Hi all! A while back, I bought a pair of apistos sold as “cacatuoides” from a chain store. Now that they’re closer to adulthood, I’m starting to have doubts on their species. Here are a few photos! I do believe the darker one is a cacatuoides male, bc of his fins, huge mouth, and occasional color. The other, I have no idea. It is occasionally bright yellow with a black line down its side, or as shown here, a brown-yellow with blue dots on the face, faint black bars on its flank, and yellow fins. Any help would be appreciated!

I believe your darker fish to definitely be Apistogramma cacatuoides. The three enlarged black rays in the front of the dorsal fin, along with the lip structure, in particular the "underbite", is a key tell in my opinion. Your fish looks like a potential sleeper male, or a female showing a few male secondary sex characteristics. The amount of yellow being shown in the second picture along with the accentuated vertical black eye band are typical female traits though, which muddy the picture a little bit.

The second fish is pretty perplexing to me. The caudal fin structure and oval body shape in the second to last picture are pretty obviously non-cacatuoides to me and the presence of the pink and turquoise sheen would be quite unusual. The location of the pink coloration really makes me think female Apistogramma eunotus, but I cannot be certain. They are relatively uncommon in the hobby and I would be surprised if one was present in the cacatuoides stock at the store.

I will be interested to hear if anyone else has some additional thoughts on the ID.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by DallasCowboys16

[Zeaqua]

Interesting! I've never heard of A. eunotus, but I wouldn't be shocked if a wholesaler got ahold of one and accidentally labelled it as another species. As for the darker one, I completely agree that It's probably an A. cacatuoides. Super curious about what the other could be! Guess I shouldn't be expecting fry anytime soon!

[tolstoy21]

I was leaning male Cacatuoides for the first, and female Cacatuoides for the second.

CHANGED MY MIND ON THIS ID; SEE ADDITIONAL THREAD -- "Not 100% sure of the others, but maybe Hongsloi? See second pic (one I grabbed off the www)."

This is a pic of my wild caught A. Cacatuoides. You can see that the three leading black dorsal spines are followed by a red-tipped one, similar to the fish you have in pic #1.

 

A Hongsloi male -- the markings on this are more dramatic than in your pics, but they look similar. Note the leading black dorsal spines, and the red patch behind the gill, as well as the one right before the tail.

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by tolstoy21

[tolstoy21]

Ok revising what I said after I realized Google image search did me wrong.

The pic I added is not a Hongsoi, but is Apistogramma eunotus, just as @DallasCowboys16 stated. So yeah, I'm agreeing with Dallas on his fantastic fish ID.

Edited December 12, 2023 by tolstoy21