ChrisCichlid
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2012
- Messages
- 13
Is this frontosa Rare?
ID this Fish!
- Thread starter ChrisCichlid
- Start date
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Fishanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
No, I don't really think it is a frontosa rare.
Maybe a closer pic could help me find out what specimen it is.
Maybe a closer pic could help me find out what specimen it is.
OP
OP
ChrisCichlid
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2012
- Messages
- 13
The design seems rare?
Fishanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
Very true, i see better now. The mouth fins and design do. Though i don't have much experience in this section of the fish, looking at it's forehead, i don't see the development of that thing that pops out on his head. Though, now clearer, i think it might be a frontosa rare.
Cichlid-dude
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2011
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- 1,565
Fronts dont have the hump form when they are juveniles. The hump starts to form when the near adulthood and gets rather large.
The frontosa in your photo has what is called mooning (the white 'semi-circle' just beneath the dorsal fin at the top of the thickest bar), usually considered an imperfection.
The specimen may also be a burundi-kigoma hybrid and here's why:
Burundi's are the most common six-stripe variant. They have vertical eye-bars as the frontosa in the photo does.
Kigoma's are 7-stripe variants. In addition to the 7th stripe, kigoma's have a "mini-stripe" that exists between the eye-stripe (in kigoma's, more of an eye 'patch') and the 2nd stripe (better seen in the smaller kigoma in the photo below), right above the gill plate:
Your frontosa seems to have this kigoma 'mini stripe' (which burundi's lack) yet has 6 stripes and the burundi's vertical eye bar. Its thickest stripe may also represent the merging of two stripes due to potential 6-stripe/7-stripe lineage.
The specimen may also be a burundi-kigoma hybrid and here's why:
Burundi's are the most common six-stripe variant. They have vertical eye-bars as the frontosa in the photo does.
Kigoma's are 7-stripe variants. In addition to the 7th stripe, kigoma's have a "mini-stripe" that exists between the eye-stripe (in kigoma's, more of an eye 'patch') and the 2nd stripe (better seen in the smaller kigoma in the photo below), right above the gill plate:
Your frontosa seems to have this kigoma 'mini stripe' (which burundi's lack) yet has 6 stripes and the burundi's vertical eye bar. Its thickest stripe may also represent the merging of two stripes due to potential 6-stripe/7-stripe lineage.
