Unidentified American Cichlid

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Originally Posted by accidental777

The first picture has some nice juvenile Jack dempsey (Roico octofasciatus), and the second is indeed a convict (Amantitlania nigrofasciatus). As mentioned above, you can sex the convict but whether or not there is orange coloration on its stomach. Convicts are very prolific if they are given a chance to pair off. In regaurds to their aggression towards other fish while mating, it depends on the tank size. I have had offspring in a 55gal-210gal with our too much trouble. A few nipped fins are bound to happen, but death of fellow tankmates is rare I.M.E. with a properly stocked tank.

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Sorry for the crappy pics, hard to get a good side shot when the subject thinks you're going to feed it!

However, I still tend to think they are JD's. They all came from the same clutch, and they all USED to be the same color and the same size when we got them. Here's another pic from the side, today they aren't so dark...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...8/IMG_0828.jpg

Meanwhile here are some pictures of juvenile convicts: http://en.microcosmaquariumexplorer....onvict_Cichlid

I'm no cichlid expert but I think that convicts should have stronger striping than these guys do. To me, in the above picture, the fish on the right just looks like a darker, smaller version of the fish on the left...

Well, you got me lol. The first picture kind of had me tricked. The side picture shows it is a juvenile dempsey. Cichlids are like that sometimes....I guess it just goes to show how capable they are of changing color according to mood. Most of the time they are darker when stressed or spawning.

Sounds like a Jack Dempsey, awesome fish, but really naughty.