please help identify

[jennymit21]

I'm visitin gmy sister in New Hampshire and about a yr ago my mother bought her some fish (unbeknownst to me). neither of them did research about tank mates and all of her tetras already in the tank got eaten. So now a yr later i'm trying to figure out what type of fish she has and get her some info on it. problem is...can't identify. HELP Please !!!!

I think they are some sort of cichlid but since i'm relatively new to all of this i'm not sure. The big one is about 3 1/2" long Reddish gold body with green vertical stripes. the fins are redish. the dorsal and anal fins are sorta longish and flowy and it's tail fin is divided about of the way down. He has a rather pointy face. Obviously as i stated before he is very aggresive (managed to eat 14 of the tetras ) she has no digital camera and her connection is (gasps) dial up so can't send pic sorry. any help would be appreciated as i am trying to educate her Thanks in Advance

 

[Christmasfish]

http://community-2.webtv.net/MorganaLaFey/StansAquariumPage/page9.html

Any of these?

I know jack crappie about cichlids..my minds eye keeps seeing like a giant ram gulping neons...^_^
but I saw these above just the other day....
I don't think the new long finned oscars have stripes...

At least I can get these crossed off the list if nothing else
though I would hope they would have been leery of any fish with "terror" in the name

 

[jennymit21]

nope not that one thx though. this fish has more of a reddish gold base color and longer tail fins that are red. anyone else have a suggestion?

 

[Hypostomus]

You could try making a "rough approximation" sketch with Microsoft Paint and uploading it..

Your mother doesn't remember what she bought them as? Pointy faces and cichlids don't go together in my mind unless it was one of the African cichlids.

If it's been there a year and it's only 3 1/2" long then it's definitely not an oscar.

Perhaps a green severum juvenile? That growth rate makes a little more sense, but I haven't kept severums so I couldn't say for sure whether 3.5" after a year is normal or not. They do have yellowish bodies with red fins and stripes and sort of "beaked" faces and are the first things that come to my mind at your description. (http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/other/heros1.jpg, http://aquaworld.netfirms.com/Cichlidae/Heros_severus.jpg)

They are now Heros serverus I think, though they were formerly called Cichlasoma severum. All I know is they will eat small fish (tetras..) and will wreck plants (what respectable cichlid doesn't? ).

Edit: They come in a number of different color morphs, not just green. You may want to do searches on "gold" and "turquoise" severums as well if that looks like the body shape of the fish but not the color.

 

[jennymit21]

i am not positive that it is even a cichlid, but the one in my sis' tank is a little longer rather than oval but the face shape is very similar. Also the tailfin is a little longer than mostof the pics of severums that i looked at. Sorry to keep saying no to your input any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated though as i have continued searching and not found that fish yet :? THX

 

[Christmasfish]

geez it could even be a large characin like lepronis or Distichodus or something!
Characins are a huge lot with all kinds of fish types.

 

[Christmasfish]

http://www.cichlidfishforum.com/profiles/Severum.html
or
http://community.webshots.com/album/15985005WCjAOaflWt

every google I try on colors brings up severums..specially as juveniles.

 

[jennymit21]

oh yeah and my drawing skills....well we won't even go there let's just leave it at non-existent