Mesonauta sp

[christoph]

Just bought several Mesonauta sp, anyone an idea what species i have ?

[Rico Morgenstern]

Generally they look somehow like Mesonauta festivus, but some of the vertical bars are splitted into two, which is not known to me from this species.

RM

[christoph]

I have some articles i use to ID Mesonauta but most of the time it seems to be impossble.

[newmanl]

Most of the problem in identifying live Mesonauta specimens is that the 5 or 6 species (I think we're up to 6...) are largely separated by drainage (location) and colour pattern - from an aquarist point of view. I don't have the references in front of me at the moment, but if I remember right, it is the fright, or black, markings that are used. The short answer is that unless you know specifically where your wild-caught fish came from, it's unlikely you'll ever get a definitive identification of the beasts in your aquarium. Unfortunately, farmed-rasied specimens and those circulating in the trade could be hybrids of a couple of Mesonauta species or at least have been "domesticated" long enough for the colour pattern to be no longer useful in arriving at a conclusive ID.

If you can, find out where your fish came from and we may be able to offer a little more. If you can't get/find that info, enjoy the fish anyway - their breeding/brooding behaviour alone makes more than worthwhile!

Best of luck with them.

Lee

[christoph]

Following http://www.francecichlid.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=79 i think they are hybrids.

[Fabien]

It could be Mesonauta egregius : bar 6 is splitted. But the bar 5 is poorly defined