Male or female Vieja Bifasciatus

[burzumaske20]

I am curious if this is a male or female Vieja Bifasciatus? This one has grown quite fast in a year and maybe it is possible to sex this Vieja?
Thanks

Just for the fun of it. I'm going to the post the first day I purchase this Vieja

 

[Nighthawk]

Looks more like a synspillum to me. Hard to tell from the picture (for my amature eyes anyway). They're hard to sex but I'm gonna say female. That's my best guess without a better picture. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

 

[Casper2000]

Thats def a bifa. Looks male to me, has that vieja head hump forming. Also the fins are starting to stream up top. Gorgeous bifa btw, Rio Chacamax?

 

[Psylant]

Definitely agree that it is a Bifasciatus. It's very tough sexing almost any Vieja without venting (I've given up on mine until much larger). I'd guess male also due to the steeper forehead, and what appears to be a bit of a nuchal hump starting. Nice fish

 

[burzumaske20]

Thanks. It took a while to ID this Vieja for a almost 6 months or so, but I am sticking to Bifasciatus, because any picture I have seen of a Bifa is very close to resembling mine. Also, my original purchase was suppose to be a Argentea, but the seller shipped this stunner out instead. I was debating male too, because I had a Texas cichlid that was a Cyanoguttatus where it had the nuchal hump.

 

[Yank-Keeper-Scott]

i think those who dont know **** nabout vieja should never comment on a tyhread. alls good in trying to help but saying this is a syn is proposterous.

 

[Psylant]

Thanks. It took a while to ID this Vieja for a almost 6 months or so, but I am sticking to Bifasciatus, because any picture I have seen of a Bifa is very close to resembling mine. Also, my original purchase was suppose to be a Argentea, but the seller shipped this stunner out instead. I was debating male too, because I had a Texas cichlid that was a Cyanoguttatus where it had the nuchal hump.

Strange. Argentea are the only type of Vieja that is easy to distinguish at a small size. All the others look pretty much identical. I myself have a 7" mystery Vieja. I think it's Bifa hybrid though.

 

[burzumaske20]

Strange. Argentea are the only type of Vieja that is easy to distinguish at a small size. All the others look pretty much identical. I myself have a 7" mystery Vieja. I think it's Bifa hybrid though.

When I placed the order online, which I forgot which site I ordered from. They had a good deal where you didn't have to pay shipping at all and I ended up paying 25 for the vieja bifasciatus instead of the Argentea. What was weird is that they didn't have the bifasciatus on their site, but the Argentea only. I think in the end, I ended up with a good looking Vieja that grew quite fast in about a year now. He's the only cichlid in my tank that isn't picky about flakes, cichlid sticks, pellets, staples, minnows, krill, bloodworm, ect. He is definitely worse than my Oscar with eating.

 

[Nighthawk]

This is my female synspillum and female bifasciatum. Based on what I can see from the out of focus photo I said it "looks like a synspillum to me" and it still does.

It has the pumpkin seed shape of synspillum, although it's hard for my old eyes to tell from the photo provided the scales appear synspillum to me as well.

Perhaps you young whipersnappers can tell for certain from the photo.

 

[burzumaske20]

I see what you're saying Nighthawk. You maybe correct, because your female seems to have the same orange as mine. Its odd that I have seen pictures resembling mine being under Bifasciatus online.