Checkerboard Apistogramma?

[Sonny Disposition]

Hi all. Two or three weeks ago, I broke down and actually bought some cichlids. I was wandering around in the Maryland House of Tropicals, looking for something to put in my 65 gallon high. I was about to buy some baby angelfish, when I saw a tank labeled "Apistogramma cacatuioides." They didn't really have any striking colors, and I thought they would color up and develop the long dorsal spike after I had them awhile. Anyway, when I came to the tank this morning, one of them was resting on a large Amazon sword leaf, and had kind of a "checkerboard" pattern--dark black background, overlain with bronze squares. (Well, rounded squares, anyway. But I think the idea comes across.) This doesn't look like any of the cacatuoides I've seen in the book or on the Web, so I think these were mislabeled at the store. All of the apistos mix it up prettywell, gill flaring at each other, and shimmering parallel to each other, but no body seems to be getting hurt.

The colors (but not the pattern) reminds me of a warmouth:
http://www.utexas.edu/tmm/tnhc/fish/na/cen...us/cgulosu2.jpg


Bob

 

[mscichlid]

It sounds like you have Dicrossus filamentosus. I don't have a picture of one handy. The males develop a lyre tail early on and have a more coppery color than the females. Google checkerboard cichlid for pictures of them.

 

[Sonny Disposition]

That was a good guess, Francine, but unfortunately it doesn't look like the fish I have. Only one of them has the weird pattern. The rest are kind of a dull brownish gray, with a broad lateral band. One of them was starting to develop a faint blue band, below the lateral band, but his fins were getting chewed up, so I moved him to a cory tank before he got killed.

 

[Cristy]

Can you post a picture?

 

[Sonny Disposition]

My picture taking ability isn't that good, but I'll likely bring one to the next PVAS or cichlid club meeting.