İtaya or Pachitea?

[arifhb]

Hi everyone!

Yes gentlemen, do you think it is an itaya cacatuoides or pachitea? I looked into it a lot and it looks like it belongs to the pachitea river to me. This fish is an F1 juvenile belonging to a wild couple from Peru. There's another thing I'm wondering about, I know that cacatuoides have a slight hump on their heads, is this exactly the case with this fish? I hope it's not an anatomical defect. I'm thinking of growing it in a biotope tank. Thanks for all.

 

[Mike Wise]

There is no way of saying if you don't know where it was collected. I have a photo of a very similar fish that I collected near Leticia, Colombia and another collected in Samaria-Picaya Natural Reserve in Peru.

Your fish is developing a "nuchal hump" seen on many cichlids. It occurs with age and feeding a diet high in fat (sort of like a spare tire around the waste in humans).