Andinoacara (Aequidens)Coeruleopunctatus sex ID

[Fictorious]

I would like to ask some people who have experience in judging the sex of a Andinoacara (Aequidens)Coeruleopunctatus. A few weeks a go i bought three of them.

I made 4 pictures of one (the same) Andinoacara Coeruleopunctatus and i hope that anyone can identify the sex (genre):









The pictures above are from 1 fish made​​. Of the other two I will later photographs of places.

The fish is above 8 or 9 cm.

They are wild-caught animals from South America.

Thnx for looking into it!

[RobinH]

They dont look like coeruleopunctatus in my mind. the sex i dont know.

[Miguel A. Diaz]

Why do you think they aren´t coeruleupunctatus? RobinH. They are so similiar to pulcher that only if you know where they are from you know what species is.

[Fictorious]

There from Colombia, wild-caught.

What kind of Adinoacara do you think it is then?

[newworldsss]

that was the first cichlid I collected, i found them not easy to sex....easier to spawn

[Adrian Indermaur]

Hy guys,

I would say it is a female A. coeruleupunctata.

[Bas Pels]

My male A coeruleopunctatus have white edges on their fins, and these fins are very long

If this fish was of the same variety (which it is not) I'd say female. So I guess female for your fish

[Fictorious]

Thnx for replying. Why would you say its a female Adrian Indermaur?

and what do you guys think of the following pictures. The pictures are made from the same fish but a different fish then the one i posted in my first post.

Thnx for replying. What about these?

[Adrian Indermaur]

Hy, Fictorious

me saying female is basically a pure gut feeling. Allthough I have seen a lot of cichlids and the fishes posture finage and genital papilla seem to add up to a female for me.
Anyhow... The A.pulcher and the A. coeruleopunctata are morphologically almost indistinguishable, A.c coming from the pacific slops and A.p from all the atlantic drainages.
I just asked a highly knowlegable collegue and she says since the fish are from Colombia it is A. pulcher for sure and the red eye points toward the Orinoco basin origin.

The second fish by the way looks a lot like her male

Very nice fish!

Greets

[Fictorious]

Hey Adrian Indermaur,

Thanks for your response and time that you took for this. After what you wrote i took my Aqualog III and looked at the pictures of the Aequidens and to be honnest i think your right that its a aequidens pulcher. I think its the Aequidens pulcher "Venezuela". Also looking at the pictures i think i have made a mistake. The first four pictures i posted can't be from the same fish. If you look at there anal fin at the end you see there is some difference. Aqualog III shows a pictuer of a female with the anal fin to the end of the tale. There is some space between it if i look at the picture of the male. Also the male is rounder build.

I don't know if i can trust Aqualog III about this information but maybe for you guys its easier, now you know that its a aequidens pulcher.

[RobinH]

God you have sorted out what fish it is!

[cichla]

Dear all,
see here http://www.dcg-online.de/encyclopedia/w ... 98-108.pdf for pictures of Andinoacara from Colombia. The article is written by Musilová, the leading expert for the genuus.
Greetings, IS

[Sjors]

Dear all,
see here http://www.dcg-online.de/encyclopedia/w ... 98-108.pdf for pictures of Andinoacara from Colombia. The article is written by Musilová, the leading expert for the genuus.
Greetings, IS

Nice article. When i look at the picture in it then i think they might be Coeruleopunctatus "Columbia". What do you guys think?

[Adrian Indermaur]

Hy cichla,
she is actually the collegue I was refering to above

[Sjors]

I had some corresponding with Alf Stalsberg. At first he thought of the Coeruleopunctatus. But later he saw that the one with the red eyes is a A. Pulcher. This is the biggest one i have of the 3.

[Don Hiatt]

According to the relatively recent reclassification of the "Aequidens pulcher group", "A.pulcher proper" is a species restricted to the island of Trinidad.

A.coeruleopuntcatus has been reserved for the Andinoacara found in Costa Rica and Panama.

This leaves A.latifrons as the possible proper name for this fish. Sjors' link illustrates this perfectly.

Back to your original question, I would guess the individuals with longer / pointier fins to be males. Unfortunately, Acaras are not very sexually dimorphic.

Regards
Don

[TheFishGuy]

I have andinoacara latifrons, I'd love to get this thread going once again...