Green Texas cichlid from JoeFish Aquatics at Fish Story

[thebiggerthebetter]

Got this little green texas about 2 years ago from my friend JoeFish' LFS in south Ft. Myers, Florida, USA. It was around 1.5"-2" and $9 is memory serves. It's been an easy fish for me, doesn't bother its tank mates, feeds well, actually too well as you can tell from the video. Seems to only want pellets but our Ziegler Bros. pellets are cheap and of rather poor quality, albeit not the worst. This plus the fish' tendency to overfeed resulted in the distended abdomen. It worries me a bit. Very similar in all these described ways to our Vieja melanura synspilum.

Current size seems around 8"-10". Someone said it is a male:

 

[Gourami Swami]

Very nice fat fish! Hard to tell from this video but looks more like a female to me. If you get a picture showing dorsal fin we could sex it for sure. Black blotch in dorsal generally means female, I'm thinking I see some black.

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Very impressive group of fish!

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Very nice fat fish! Hard to tell from this video but looks more like a female to me. If you get a picture showing dorsal fin we could sex it for sure. Black blotch in dorsal generally means female, I'm thinking I see some black.

I don't see the black blotch. Male? Or is the dorsal not raised enough in the pic?

 

[Gourami Swami]

I don't see the black blotch. Male? Or is the dorsal not raised enough in the pic?

View attachment 1383799

much better view here, looks male to me based on lack of black in dorsal + body/head shape. Pretty confident that's a male

 

[RD.]

Damn Viktor, he looks like he's about to blow!

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Damn Viktor, he looks like he's about to blow!

I know! A whaler's comment... That's why I am concerned, as I also stated in the OP. I wonder if the highly distended bottom is not only the amount of feed being digested but also fat deposits from the less-than-good (really crappy but your standards, I know, we touched on this several times) Zeigler Bros aquaculture pellets.

He (thanks Swami!) still feeds as usual though.

 

[RD.]

I know! A whaler's comment... That's why I am concerned, as I also stated in the OP. I wonder if the highly distended bottom is not only the amount of feed being digested but also fat deposits from the less-than-good (really crappy but your standards, I know, we touched on this several times) Zeigler Bros aquaculture pellets.

He (thanks Swami!) still feeds as usual though.

I suspect that it's both quantity, and quality (too many carbs), both resulting in excess calories.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I thought might be a low quality texas cichlid but not sure. Got one green Texas, has had it for 3 years, no big problems with it; the colors are much brighter.

This new rescue is about 8", just got it into one of our 240 gal 4 hours ago, and it already is chasing polleni, cyprinids (Tor sinensis and Hampala macrolepidota), and African lab cichlid, ... tries to bite / test taste Synodontis, bullhead, blochii. Came with two oscars, 10" and 12", doesn't bother them - all three rescues went into this one tank. It is still hesitant to pick a fight with an adult jack dempsey but the jack only tries to intimidate, not fight. That's my observations for now.

It was bought at 2" about a year ago, along with the two oscars, and have been raised in a 75 gal, from where I caught them today.

What is it???

 

[newworld]

Looks like it could be cyanoguttatus, I love when the term "low quality Texas or flower horn" is used, I c all mixes as low quality hahaha