T. ellioti, who keeps them and how are you keeping them and with what?

[HybridHerp]

Got this little guy the other day. I'm guessing its a male, but I don't really know. He is like, two inches tops, and I have him in a 10 until he gets to be at least 3 inches or so. Idk how long that will take or anything, but I might throw in some guppy females to keep him company while he waits to get bigger to be in my 75.

I'd have gotten another one had there been more, but this was the only one, and I had to nab it as I've never seen one in person before. I got him from f22, went to his store and got this alongside other fun cichlids.

Look at my 75 in my sig, that's what I'm going to keep him with, and I hear these are great in planted tanks, and at worse they can't be any risker than the other cichlids I have in there (although so far so good).

Show me what you guys have and how you keep yours. It'd be nice to know.

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[tiger15]

T. eliots are kinder gentler version of Firemouth. They have less intense red than FM, but more blue sparklings, specially the females. Their mellow personality makes them great community cichlids. They are rarely sold in LFS, and I got a colony from an auction. If anyone is interested, I am selling some extra in another thread.

 

[cichlidfish]

T. eliots are kinder gentler version of Firemouth. They have less intense red than FM, but more blue sparklings, specially the females. Their mellow personality makes them great community cichlids. They are rarely sold in LFS, and I got a colony from an auction. If anyone is interested, I am selling some extra in another thread.

Not IME. The one I had was far more aggressive than firemouths. I had a male that claimed most of a 6' 150g for himself. I had a syn, h.deppi, JD, and a few other larger cichlds w/ him too. I ended up donating him to a LFS because of the aggression.


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[tiger15]

That's is strange too. May be you have an outlier psycopath, because he was bothering tankmates syn and JD that are much bigger fish.

From my own personal experience keeping firemouth, and literature description on thorichthys species, firemouth is the more aggressive species. I had to donate two male FM away because they are bothering my African peacocks which are about the same size.

 

[fug202]

The ellioti (= maculipennis) I had were very aggressive, much more so that other Thorichthys I've kept (meeki, pasionis, gold Mixteco, aureus). Experiences clearly differ in this regard, so your fish may get along well with others. I'd move him into the larger tank while he is still relatively small. He won't be perceived as a threat by the threadfin (in my experience they ignore smaller fish), and the two will have a chance to get used to each other before the ellioti becomes territorial.

 

[HybridHerp]

Only reason I'm not doing that....is because I have a senegal bichir in the tank....and am unsure if this little guy will fit in his mouth or not, and I didn't want to find out the hard way lol. He is significantly smaller than everything else, so I want to wait until he clears the size of "possible bichir food" first.

But that's interesting that some people are saying that they are hyper aggressive. I know he was being kept in a tank for 2 months filled with small tetras and a baby EBJD in the store I got him from...right now he is alone though in the 10. I was thinking of moving two female guppies to be with him just because I don't really want them in the tank they are currently in, but we shall see.

 

[HybridHerp]

Wait, question. What is the scientific name of this fish? Is it T. ellioti or is it T. maculipennis? I just like being as up to date as possible on the latin on what I keep.

Also, I guess while we are at at, while I know this clearly isn't a fire mouth, and I did buy it as a T. ellioti, are we sure it is that and not a different similar looking species? I don't have much experience with the genus outside of a firemouth I kept almost 10 years ago.

 

[fug202]

Wait, question. What is the scientific name of this fish? Is it T. ellioti or is it T. maculipennis? I just like being as up to date as possible on the latin on what I keep.

Also, I guess while we are at at, while I know this clearly isn't a fire mouth, and I did buy it as a T. ellioti, are we sure it is that and not a different similar looking species? I don't have much experience with the genus outside of a firemouth I kept almost 10 years ago.

T. maculipennis is the accepted scientific name, but often they are referred to as ellioti. I can't speak to the genetic purity of the fish you have, but the photo is consistent with a T. maculipennis, as is the photo by the second poster.

The aggression issue probably isn't particularly relevant with tetras, guppies, etc (ie., non-cichlids). Mine, at least, reserved their aggression for other cichlids, which makes sense given their territorial behavior. Good call on not moving it into the tank with the bichir if there is a risk it would become food.

 

[cichlidfish]

Wait, question. What is the scientific name of this fish? Is it T. ellioti or is it T. maculipennis? I just like being as up to date as possible on the latin on what I keep.

Also, I guess while we are at at, while I know this clearly isn't a fire mouth, and I did buy it as a T. ellioti, are we sure it is that and not a different similar looking species? I don't have much experience with the genus outside of a firemouth I kept almost 10 years ago.

T. maculipennis is the correct name, but t. ellioti is a junior synonym. Firemouth is only the common name for t. meeki, and ellioti/t. mac are very different fish.

Other similar thorichthys:

t. aureus
t. mixteco-might be variations of t. helleri
t. helleri
t. affinis
t. callolepis
t. meeki
t. pasionis

 

[darth pike]

Supposedly T. ellioti is the correct name, due to one of the rare exceptions in nomenclature. Usually it is the first, older name that is the valid one (in this cause maculipennis) but there are a rare few exceptions. In this one, the genus was described based on T. ellioti. It didn't matter when Thorichthys was condensed back into Cichlasoma, so it was still maculipennis. But when Thorichthys was resurrected as a valid genus, it gave ellioti precedence. Or so say the super scientific sites that are way above my league.