Could anyone please ID my new Aequidens purchase

[catherine]

Hi

I wonder if someone could correctly identify my recent purchase of two Aequidens Metae. I'm not 100% sure if they are Metae or whether they could be Diademas?

I have had a male A Metae before but unfortunately he died a while ago. This is a photo of him, he was called Ed.



Before he died I looked everywhere for some more A Metae but found them very hard to find. I then got an email (it was through my ad on Aquarists Classifieds asking for A Metaes) saying that Maidenhead Aquatics had 3, so after seeing them I decided to buy them. They were gorgeous fish but as they grew I found out from Alf Stalsberg that all 3 were A Diademas. Here's a pic of 1 of those Diademas I have already.



This time I'm unsure which Aequidens I have, so if I put some pics of them on here could someone try to ID them for me. Here they are, a mix of photos of the 2 fish.











Any ideas for an ID?

Thanks a lot.

[DRE]

Aequidens Diadema possibly Aequidens sp Janero Herrera (which is diadema from Peru)

[catherine]

Thanks for your reply Dre.

What exactly are the visual differences between A Metae, A Diadema and A sp Janero Herrera?

Thanks a lot.

[DRE]

Diadema and sp Janera Herrera are the same but Janero Herrera are caught in Peru and that is has stronger coloring. Possibly it might be a separate species, but not as of now atleast.
The metae has lots of orange spots, but no stripe along the body that meets with the stripe from the dorsal fin.

Sorry for the swedisk links, there is English flag for auto translation though.
Diadema:
http://www.ciklid.org/artregister/artre ... php?ID=229

sp Janero Herrera:
http://www.ciklid.org/artregister/artre ... Peru&fp=01
There is a comment at the bottom in norwegian stating that the diadema from Peru is equal of tha sp Janero Herrera. Alf Stalsberg is the one commenting I think, famous cichlid fantas that gave name to Aequidens stalsbergi (silberseam).

Metae:
http://www.ciklid.org/artregister/artre ... php?ID=180

[Rico Morgenstern]

diadema and sp. 'Jenaro Herrera' are in fact not the same. Kullander, in his 1986 book of peruvian cichlid fishes, has identified specimens of the latter as A. diadema, but later he came to the conclusion that they represent an undescribed species. Of the links given by you, DRE, the first one is to the real A. diadema, which is confined to upper Orinoco and Rio Negro drainages. Apart from the color differences, the two species differ in their breeding behavior: While Aequidens sp. 'Jenaro Herrera' is a substrate brooder like A. metae and most other Aequidens, A. diadema is a delayed, or larvophile, mouthbrooder.

As to your pics, Catherine, I would say the first one is a A. metae of the common aquarium strain also available here in Germany (probably originating from the Upper Rio Meta drainage). The second shows a beautiful A. sp. 'Jenaro Herrera'. The remainder looks like geographical variant of, or an undescribed species close to, A. metae from middle Orinoco area (i.e. Puerto Ayacucho).

All the best
RM

[Juan Artigas]

I agree with Rico, I have kept several years ago a group of Aequidens metae collected from Rio Meta exactly like those in the first two pictures of Catherine. The elongated black mark on the face is very characteristic.

[DRE]

diadema and sp. 'Jenaro Herrera' are in fact not the same. Kullander, in his 1986 book of peruvian cichlid fishes, has identified specimens of the latter as A. diadema, but later he came to the conclusion that they represent an undescribed species. Of the links given by you, DRE, the first one is to the real A. diadema, which is confined to upper Orinoco and Rio Negro drainages. Apart from the color differences, the two species differ in their breeding behavior: While Aequidens sp. 'Jenaro Herrera' is a substrate brooder like A. metae and most other Aequidens, A. diadema is a delayed, or larvophile, mouthbrooder.

As to your pics, Catherine, I would say the first one is a A. metae of the common aquarium strain also available here in Germany (probably originating from the Upper Rio Meta drainage). The second shows a beautiful A. sp. 'Jenaro Herrera'. The remainder looks like geographical variant of, or an undescribed species close to, A. metae from middle Orinoco area (i.e. Puerto Ayacucho).

All the best
RM

Good info reagarding mouth brooding on the Janero Herrera species I did not know this. I have a few sp Janera Herrera young adults as of now so that will be interesting to follow. And yes I agree they are probably 2 different species and the first is of course a metae. I assumed they both were the same and the first picture caught them in a scared mode were the stripes were hidden.

[catherine]

Hi

Thanks for all your info.

The first pic was of a A Metae (he had dark eyes), the second pic was of a A Diadema (I had 3 all the same, all with the red eyes).

I've had a few people say the last few pics are of A Metae (the two fish have dark eyes like A Metae have, not red eyes like A Diadema).

I've also got 3 A sp 'Peru' in my tank now too, they are lovely coloured fish but can be a bit bolshy.

[DRE]

Hmm, I think I misread you here Rico.

I had the impression that the Janero herrera was the larvophile mouthbrooder, but you state that it is the diadema that is just that.

What is the real setup? I today have a couple sp. Janero Herrrera spawning (just eggs for now) I could report back regarding their brood care atleast.