Rescued abandoned tank yesterday

[Valb68]

I need help identifying this cichlid. Its very thin and its fins are clamped so its a bit hard to see all of the aspects of this fish, but any help would be appreciated. I'm also putting up a link showing the conditions these fish were in, sickening stuff, smelled like sewer water with dead fish. You can see the little cichlid is at the surface gasping. I'm actually surprised he survived the ordeal. There was no running water, the tank was a sewer, but I managed to find some rainwater outside and slowly added some fresh water to their bucket. Over the course of 3 hours I converted them to clean water and the little cichlid survived.
http://youtu.be/ITZKxaeYM48 Fish after rescue
http://youtu.be/K0UDWkYHfwc During rescue

[Valb68]

Found a person with a pond that will take the goldfish and pleco. Sooo just the mystery cichlid left........ Anybody have any ideas on how to identify what it is?

[Supercorygirl]

With it being stressed and so emancipated it is hard to tell. It kind of looks like a Rainbow Cichlid (Archocentrus Multispinosa) but I'm no expert.

[Valb68]

With it being stressed and so emancipated it is hard to tell. It kind of looks like a Rainbow Cichlid (Archocentrus Multispinosa) but I'm no expert.

Wow that is close! It's spots don't go all the way to the gills though, I found a photo of a young spotted tilapia and I think that could possibly be it......still not sure LOL

[Valb68]

With it being stressed and so emancipated it is hard to tell. It kind of looks like a Rainbow Cichlid (Archocentrus Multispinosa) but I'm no expert.

Now did you mean to say he was recently freed or emaciated? Gotta admit the pun made me chuckle

[Supercorygirl]

Hahaha damn auto correct. Emaciated.

[Bas Pels]

it's not H multispinosa, these have a rounded head while your fish has a pointed one. Further the black markings are not correct.

I'm tempted to say it's a Herichthys (for the blue shine of the fish), but I also tend to say 'citrinellum group' (based on general body shape). Problem is, these fishes can interbreed, and you might be the owner of a citrinellum X carpinte or so.

[Valb68]

it's not H multispinosa, these have a rounded head while your fish has a pointed one. Further the black markings are not correct.

I'm tempted to say it's a Herichthys (for the blue shine of the fish), but I also tend to say 'citrinellum group' (based on general body shape). Problem is, these fishes can interbreed, and you might be the owner of a citrinellum X carpinte or so.

I wonder how much its body shape will change when it gains some needed body mass and opens its fins though? It's head is so large for its body right now, looks odd. Swims head down most of the time, had that base of red with turqoise lines running through it and its eyes have a red hue.....hard to capture on video with the lighting in the tank. The interbreeding I was just talking about to someone last night, maybe a cross of some sort. But I'm cichlid deficient aka cichlid tard. I believe I found a home for him in someone's basement fishroom, I'm going to request photos so we can see what it eventually turns into. Goldfish and Pleco went to their new garden pond home this morning

[Valb68]

Bas Pels, do you think it could be a spotted Tilapia? There is a form of Amphilophus citrinellum that looks a lot like it including the red eyes also.

[Bas Pels]

Actually, I could not say.

I know nest to nothing about African cichlids, apart from there is something about them that makes me uninterested. Your cichlid does not have that.

Cichlides are found in Africa (incl the middle east), America (south, central and 1 genus in north) Madegascar and India

Basically this relates to 3 groupes. All American cichlids are more related to each other than to other cichlids - with 1 exception: Heterochromis multidens (quite an interesting cichlid) from the Congo area is more related to all American cichlids then to any African one.

So I would estimate that I recognize something in a cichlid if it is American, or miss it if it is African

[coelacanth]

Looks like a young hybrid sold as Flowerhorn of one type or another. Many of them seem to have Trimac genes in there, this could be Trimac x Melanurus/Synspilus, or some other combination.
Going to get bigger and much more evil.

[Valb68]

Looks like a young hybrid sold as Flowerhorn of one type or another. Many of them seem to have Trimac genes in there, this could be Trimac x Melanurus/Synspilus, or some other combination.
Going to get bigger and much more evil.

No doubt! Its already nasty, even weak and starved Well, I'll let someone else deal with it, stick to my corys they don't try to eat or kill each other.....

Thanks everyone for helping me try and identify this mystery fish, was very interesting

[Ewb46]

I have the fish in my fish room now, and it is adjusting to it's home. I have a couple hides and have dropped in some Repashy and she/he is eating. I am 80% sure it is a Red Devil or Red Devil Midas mix as the body is slowing taking shape and that nice orange color is starting to come in. A lot of the larger cichlids will fade color under stress I would say this fish was pretty damn stressed. So a lil TLC and feeding we will see how it turns out.

[apistomaster]

It is definitely not a Rainbow Cichlid (Archocentrus multispinosus). Archocentrus multispinosus(Correct spelling) is a very nice species, not too large nor aggressive and great fun to breed. I was fortunate to acquire 25 adult wild specimens circa 1970 and went on to breed them many times. It's too bad they are not more commonly available but many hundreds of great Cichlids have been introduced since the original Archocentrus multispinosus importations.
Here is the Google Images page of Archocentrus multispinosus for comparisons.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sit ... 3JweRX5NUQ
I lean towards the hybrid hypothesis of some Central American Cichlid species.
About that same time I had Red Devils(Amphilophus labiatus). Some were gray with black strips and others were more more yellow.
One adult pair I had spawned on the side of a large holding vat but I wasn't aware of the event until I tried to clean the sides.
I was attacked quickly losing the skin off a knuckle. Upon closer examination I discovered the pair was guarding a spawn of about 1500 eggs.
I ended up using the majority of the fry as Arowana food.

[Valb68]

I have the fish in my fish room now, and it is adjusting to it's home. I have a couple hides and have dropped in some Repashy and she/he is eating. I am 80% sure it is a Red Devil or Red Devil Midas mix as the body is slowing taking shape and that nice orange color is starting to come in. A lot of the larger cichlids will fade color under stress I would say this fish was pretty damn stressed. So a lil TLC and feeding we will see how it turns out.

He sent me a phone photo by email today, truly an amazing transformation! Like he says its a phone pic and she moves a lot so its blurry but it truly shows her colors now and how far she's come Fantastic job Ewb46!

[Valb68]

Well! It looks like the mystery cichlid is a Flowerhorn type and not female at all ;) Nice job Ewb46, can't wait to see how it looks in its new 55 gallon home. This fish tripled its size in months, amazing what food and clean water will do eh?

[coelacanth]

A purist's nightmare, and not something that should be deliberately produced, but still a very bonny (and no doubt characterful) fish to have as a pet.