Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / April 2004

"RedForeman" <not@thisaddress.com> wrote:

I'd have to disagree with you here. I've seen many jack dempseys (and
photos of jack dempseys) where there is gold spangling towards the gill
plates and the head has a pale yellowish tone to it. Some of this I think
is just due to lighting (either the tank or the flash from taking the
photo). The body shape shows no signs of severum in it.

My personal theory is that this fish was extremely stressed at the pet
store and went pale. They look really funky when pale. In fact, the color
could be described as yellow (although I'd call it more pale brown or
tan). Even the barring can fade or disappear if the fish is stressed
enough. I could see some unscrupulous fish sellers taking advantage of
that to try to mark up the price by saying it's an exotic color morph.
Right now, the coloration is not as strong as it should be, but that again
could be due to recovering from stress.

That being said, I also don't think a definate ID can be made until its
coloration has returned. The shape of the tail is not quite round enough
for a true dempsey, but that could be due to many things. If it is
stressed for example, it won't be displaying its tail fully, which will
lead to it looking abnormal in a photo. It does appear to be clamping
other fins, so that may be the issue. Another thing that is hard to tell
from the photos is the nature of the spotting on the face, particularly
under the eye. It should be a series of distinct dots, not a line, but the
resolution of the photos isn't high enough to tell if this is the case.

My personal advice would be to wait a month or so, see if the fish colors
up more (as I suspect it will unless the other fish bully it and it
continues to suffer stress). Take some more photos. Try to get close-ups
on the face that have the spotting there nice and clear. Close-ups on the
dorsal fin will also help if a ray count can be taken from it. Post here
and also post over in the forums section of www.cichlidae.info. There's
several knowledgeable new world cichlid people over on that forum.