I don't think they are being eaten. Just the same concept as being given up on to begin a new spawn. If they get kicked out into the community they might be getting roughed up and essentially beaten to death. Sounds like you are well on your way to finding the key!

I think you mentioned this and it may be obvious but many fish as a strange survival mechanism will eat their young to make room and conserve energy for the next spawn. It sounds like that's what your crew is doing by kicking the fry out of the cave prematurely. I'd say you are on the right track by ...

Hey that's great thanks Marc. I agree they all have the same head shape in those pics and there is no apparent differences to distinguish male from female. I'm heavily considering the repashy. I've never seen or used it before. Soilent Green reviews on amazon had a lot of people saying their fish ...

Thank you that's fascinating that you rarely find females and here I am thinking I have nothing but. Yet another helpful detail leading me to believe I may indeed have a male in the bunch. It seems feeding is my main priority. I will continue to offer them as great a variety as possible. That's ...

Thanks! I really don't enjoy the picture process but I wasn't getting good fotos in the water. Great info! Makes me think I could possibly have a male in the bunch.

Gotcha, I just acquired these less than a week ago. I have the feeling they were wild caught not long ago and will need some time to settle in. They are eating but not much. Not interested in plecocaine, carrots, shrimp or romaine but they will enjoy zucchini. I noticed the ondontodes look like they ...

Sorry guys I posted this in the wrong section before so maybe I'll have better luck here. These look like two females to me but I'd read reports of ondontodes not forming until after several months of conditioning for breeding. Is there a good chance one of these could be a male? I'm no expert but ...

Largest is about 18cm both appear female to me but I've read accounts that ondontodes even at this size didn't appear until after a year of conditioning. Is there a good chance one could be male?

I will say these last two appear to have a shorter snout than the first three multiradiatus I picked up. However it seems a bit long for a britzkii and a bit short for a multiradiatus.

So I had 3 "britzkiis" That were positively identified as multiradiatus on here and I have now picked up two more from a different source labeled as "Britzkii". I am almost positive that these too are multiradiatus can anyone confirm this? I will say that the second pair I purchased are much larger ...

Also I thought the britzkii was the larger growing brochis? I see here that is not the case.
Perhaps the britzkii grows taller?

That's what I thought. I've been searching for Britzkii for over 10 years and was so clouded by my excitement when I saw these that I forgot the distinguishing features and trusted the salesman. Not that the Multiradiatus is not a great find in itself but..... the search continues.

I bought as Britzkii but my own research tells me Multiradaitus. However there is a britzkii being sold on aquabid right now that looks just like mine... Of course it too could be misidentified.

Can anyone tell me definitively what I have?

Are there any other defining characteristics to determining this species as caudalis or otherwise?

yes even in person the humeral process is almost nonexistent. I looked at caudalis pics and did not see a huge resemblance. In some of those pics the humeral is long an pointed as well. HOwever I don't doubt this may be caudalis and his caudal streamers have never had time to develop due to nipping ...

hope these are what you are looking for.

I am assuming it is not rare to have a rare syno since there are thousands of documented species?

ah hence the sl/tl measurements. well I would be honored to have a record breaking centralis and will attempt to take an acceptable tape measured photo and submit it.

markings and other characteristics seem to match but this guy is about 8"

here are a couple more.

I do have more pics with close ups of barbels and different angles if it helps - thanks

the profile for this fish claims these guys max out at 5" but this one is around 8"+