Geophagus ID

[MFM]

Hello everyone, I’m curious if you have seen Winemilleri without the cheek marking before? Mine have the 4 bars which would signify winemilleri, but they lack this marking and I’ve gotten curious after being stuck at home for a few days during this social distancing period... I’ve also noticed on a few of them, that either the first or the second “stress bars” split into a “Y”.

 

[dr exum]

Nice set up! Never had geo’s...

 

[neutrino]

They don't look like winemilleri to me, vertical tail markings instead of the horizontal stripes of winemilleri.

 

[MFM]

They don't look like winemilleri to me, vertical tail markings instead of the horizontal stripes of winemilleri.

That’s what I’ve noticed too...

 

[MFM]

An update on the geos, I can see a black cheek marking beginning to show on the largest in the tank. It appears primarily when they are eating or chasing each other around. Also, please excuse all the stuff floating around, I got a random diatom outbreak which I can’t seem to rid the tank of...

 

[DwarfCichlidLvr]

What size are they currently?

 

[MFM]

What size are they currently?

Around 3.5-4.5”

 

[ryansmith83]

I think I answered your post on Facebook, but I'll put it here too.

IMO they are G. winemilleri. The four forward-slanting bars and the cheek mark are the giveaway. I have seen winemilleri with horizontal stripes in the tail but also some with more spotted tails. There seems to be a lot of variation among different locales of winemilleri. Some have a very tall profile, some are more long and narrow with hump heads like proximus, etc. Are they just natural variations in different regions, are they subspecies, are they separate species? Who knows. But for now the diagnostic features focus mainly on the number and positioning of the bars and the cheek mark, so that's what we go with.

- They don't have a square midlateral spot like gottwaldi
- The midlateral spot is too low and too small to be proximus
- They have too few bars to be dicrozoster (7, including the forked Y bar)
- The bars of brachybranchus, which rarely show, are vertical rather than slanted

Here is a photo of my brachybranchus showing bars during spawning. The literature says that they do not show bars but I've found that even though it's rare, it's not absolute. However, you can see the difference in the bars when they do show.

 

[mrrobxc]

I think they’re Winemilleri as well. Mine didn’t have the cheek mark either but they started showing as they grew up just like yours.

 

[MFM]

I think I answered your post on Facebook, but I'll put it here too.

IMO they are G. winemilleri. The four forward-slanting bars and the cheek mark are the giveaway. I have seen winemilleri with horizontal stripes in the tail but also some with more spotted tails. There seems to be a lot of variation among different locales of winemilleri. Some have a very tall profile, some are more long and narrow with hump heads like proximus, etc. Are they just natural variations in different regions, are they subspecies, are they separate species? Who knows. But for now the diagnostic features focus mainly on the number and positioning of the bars and the cheek mark, so that's what we go with.

- They don't have a square midlateral spot like gottwaldi
- The midlateral spot is too low and too small to be proximus
- They have too few bars to be dicrozoster (7, including the forked Y bar)
- The bars of brachybranchus, which rarely show, are vertical rather than slanted

Here is a photo of my brachybranchus showing bars during spawning. The literature says that they do not show bars but I've found that even though it's rare, it's not absolute. However, you can see the difference in the bars when they do show.

View attachment 1413758

Haha you got that right... figured I could get some more replies if I took it to the two locations. I appreciate the advice as it was exactly what I was looking for! Beautiful fish by the way!