Over the past 4 years I have had a female midas, which I always thought was a red devil. About a year ago I purchased a red devil about the same size as the midas. They furiously bred with eachother many times and finally about 4 months ago the babies were spared by the mother. Now the babies range a quarter of an inch to an inch and have stripes with two dots. One dot is midway through the body and the other is on the back fin. Some of the babies have just a pinch of red on the bottom or back fin, when the light hits it. Please help me understand what these hybrid fish are.
Midas/Red Devil Hybrid
- Thread starter Fishy2Subie
- Start date
Ok, i know i might not be that well schooled in SA cichlids but arnt midas an red devils, very very similar an mostly all the fish u get from some petstore they can be either or i have a red devil, but he could also be a midas, who knows
The Midas cichlid(Amphilophus citrinellus) and the Red devil(Amphilophus labiatus) are both very similar cichlids that can and will hybridize easily. The "red devils" in your local lfs are almost always a hybrid mix between the two species because they are farm bred and the two species were intermingled in the beginning. The two species actually look quite a bit different side by side. The Midas is much stockier, thicker and gets a huge nuchal hump. Labiatus is arrow-shaped and usually has thicker lips, especially in wild fish. There some midas forms with big lips, however. Chances are the fry you have are just run of the mill citrinellus/labiatus hybrids.
I looked around on this site and found a gallery of baby midas fry and they look exactly like them.
Can you provide images for us?
This is an excellent example of a Midas from Jeff Rapps's site.
Note the nuchal hump and the thicker, tall body type and smaller lips.
This is a typical wild A. labiatus.
Notice the arrow shape and bigger lips.
I would also like to note that distinguishing between these two species, basing on color, is pointless. They come in so many different color morphs & patterns its insane. Stick to body type and that'll work on identification 98% of the time. Many of your LFS hybirds will have characteristics of both species, showing their hybrid genetic history. I hope this helps.
Note the nuchal hump and the thicker, tall body type and smaller lips.
This is a typical wild A. labiatus.
Notice the arrow shape and bigger lips.
I would also like to note that distinguishing between these two species, basing on color, is pointless. They come in so many different color morphs & patterns its insane. Stick to body type and that'll work on identification 98% of the time. Many of your LFS hybirds will have characteristics of both species, showing their hybrid genetic history. I hope this helps.
The red devil midas fry have JUV coloration, in the wild its not good to be bright orange and small you would be the first to become prey...They will go through a fading process were the dark color will be replaced with bright orange usally at about 3 to 4 inches some times sooner and sometimes later. The fading process can happen at anytime!!! Heres a pic of my Amphilophus Labiatus male showing a nice nuchal hump.
