Parachromis Spp. ID

[Ben_McG]

Hi all first post here. Attached is an image I took of my pair of parachromis spp.

The female is above the male in the picture (she is around 4-5 inches currently and he is probably 10-11 inch)
I bought them separately and they have not spawned as of yet, however spend all of their time swimming together.

The male was sold to me as P. Multifasciatus (formerly friedrichsthalii) - aka yellow jacket cichlid
The female was sold to me as P. Motaguensis - Red tiger mota

I have however been told overwhelmingly that my male is a motaguense, not a yellow jacket. Both fish are extremely similar in appearance.
I have also been told both fish are Yellow Jackets (multifasciatus), and someone recently mentioned my male could be a Friedrichsthalii (Formerly Loisellii). One person near me also mentioned he had hybridised RTM and YJ a while ago, and that my male could be one of his fry

So I pose the question to some of the parachromis experts on here who have been in this game way longer than me, can someone give me a definitive ID for this pair.

I should note, they are quite docile as a pair, the tank boss at the minute is a 10-11" Midas cichlid who kinda puts these guys to shame.

 

[duanes]

I agree that the female is motagense.
Below is a male motaguense to compare

and the pair together

 

[Ben_McG]

Yeah the female I'm a bit more sure of as under the correct lighting the 'Orange/Red' pops a bit more, that male though I have no idea, to me he doesn't look overly motaguense, as far as im aware there is no yellow variant of that species is there?

 

[duanes]

There "are" less red motaguense variants.
But to me, P multifasciatus may be a reality.
The biggest problem I see these days, is there are so many random unidentifiable hybrids turned into LFSs, making a positive ID without provenience is nearly an impossibility unles is species is so unique..

 

[Ben_McG]

its a nightmare to be honest. I wasn't sure on multifasciatus as they tend to be yellower from what I've seen? and lack the black pattern on their jaws. Maybe the person who said Loiselli was right? who knows, I enjoy the fish and whatever species it is won't affect my fun with the pair, but just looking for an ID for sake of putting a label to the fish.

interesting about the less red motaguense, which locales are they from usually? does anyone on here keep any

 

[duanes]

All I know about location variants for motaguence is that my first attempt they were much less red, that those of the red-tiger variant.
But its the same with others, an Andinoacara variant from central Panama can be much more blue than a variant from eastern Panama only separated by 15 miles.

The Andinoacara above is from the Chagres river drainage.
The one below is from the Rio Mamoni drainage of lake Bayano, less tha 20 miles east.

The Chagres, is choked with aquatic vegetation.

The Mamoni is all rock and sand, the only vegetation, is terrestrial, and hangs from its banks.


I kept Chuco Intermedia from 2 separate Mexican riverine locations

 

[Milingu]

To me the male looks like former loisellei.

 

[tlindsey]

its a nightmare to be honest. I wasn't sure on multifasciatus as they tend to be yellower from what I've seen? and lack the black pattern on their jaws. Maybe the person who said Loiselli was right? who knows, I enjoy the fish and whatever species it is won't affect my fun with the pair, but just looking for an ID for sake of putting a label to the fish.

interesting about the less red motaguense, which locales are they from usually? does anyone on here keep any

Welcome aboard

 

[Ben_McG]

To me the male looks like former loisellei.

This is kinda what I had landed on myself. This is a pic of him under different lighting, excuse the African cichlids in the background, was holding them for a friend whilst he was getting his tank up and running

 

[troublesum]

Either way they are nice looking fish and that male and female look good together as a pair