# can anyone ID these pikes?



## rnocera (Jan 4, 2009)

These guys are tiny, so it may be difficult. They're only about 2" long, and they've each grown a good 1/4" maybe even 1/2" since I got them a week ago. I picked up 4 of them, they're originally from American Aquaculture, Inc. and were shipped in to the store I work in as "White-spotted pike cichlids," which seems to apply to pretty much every pike in the saxatilis group. They were also labeled "big!" and my supervisor was told they were all 3-4".

All four are EXTREMELY active, and are GREAT eaters. They're eating micopellets and they take down red wrigglers I drop in for my tire track eel, even though the pieces are 1/2 as long as the pikes themselves. They also could care less about longfin danios & threadfin rainbow fish and haven't shown any interest in the smallest porkchop rasbora I have in there, even though it's plenty small enough to fit in their mouths.

So, here they are-










































And just to show it off, here's my jack dempsey who resides in the same tank. This guy's about 3" long, and I bought it at about 2" long. It's never black, always shades of grey & tan (was black when I bought it), and it's another one that does perfectly fine in the community tank. Check out how bright it is! I hope it improves as it grow, but if not, it'll still be a gorgeous JD. Any clue how big this guy/girl will be when it starts to show aggression? I've been told that by starting these guys out in community tanks & getting them used to lots of other fish they sometimes turn out less aggressive as adults. I'm hoping for this, as it's going in a tank with an extremely peaceful female green terror.









Thanks!


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Those are beauties. You are right about the common name applying to pretty much all sax group pikes. I think that orange line across the blotch will be the key to it. Unfortunately the pike ID site I use is down atm. Will go through it when it's back up, though as you said they might be a bit small. Does appear to be both sexes though. :thumb:


----------



## rnocera (Jan 4, 2009)

Thanks for the quick response! I brought home 4 of the 6 pikes that came in on the shipment and I picked the 4 most different looking ones- slightly differently shaped fins, different colors & patterns. I was hoping to wind up with a pair, but I figured if not, maybe one of them will actually turn out to be a different species. I could care less about breeding them, but I would LOVE to have a pair that could be housed together. Which genders do you think they are? I didn't know you could really tell at this size, I thought they had to be larger.


----------



## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Those gold striations on the sides are a male trait for most pikes. I wouldn't think they are big enough to sex yet as well, could just be the flash lighting them up in some pics and not others. Males general have them in some species, or really weak ones at most in others. That and the distended belly that is sort of pinkish on the one without the harringbone pattern is a female sax trait too.


----------



## rnocera (Jan 4, 2009)

They ALL have distended bellies after they eat. All 4 of them are pigs. Like I said, they take down pieces of red wriggler half as long as they are. They're pieces of worms I feed to a 6" tire track eel. Even the 3" JD who is a whole heck of a lot bigger than the pikes has trouble getting those worms down. I'm amazed every time I see one of the little pikes swimming around with a chunk of worm in its mouth.


----------



## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Pic number four looks like the making of an sp. "belly crawler"...


----------



## M0oN (Dec 8, 2003)

Possibly albopunctata


----------



## rnocera (Jan 4, 2009)

I'm fairly positive none of them are belly crawlers. I have a belly crawler and they have a very different head shape & personality. I don't know how early in life belly crawlers start to exhibit the attitude that gives them their name, but I got my BC when it was about 3", and it already hid & scooted along the bottom. I find these fish at all levels of the aquarium, and they're very bold & active even though they're in with schooling community fish, a JD, a pictus cat, and a tire track eel.

I did a google search for albopunctata and this picture







is what the pic on the order sheet from the wholesaler looked like. So. . . maybe these are _albopunctata_. Wouldn't really surprise me, and that would be cool. I'd love to see them turn out to be something different from the extremely common pikes (like belly crawlers).


----------



## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

8)


----------



## straitjacketstar (Mar 8, 2004)

None of these pikes are bellycrawlers.
Although unless you've got quite a number of stats, bar counts, spangle shape and location, collection location, you're very likely to never get a positive ID on your pikes.
Sax group pikes are probably the most difficult to ID considering many of them look the same and many of them are still undescribed leaving them only with "sp. geographical variant" names such as C. "sp. Pernambuco" or C. "sp. Pacaya".
The most similar looking species that I can think of is C. lucius. They have no spangles. Many other Saxatilis group pikes have spangles.


----------



## rnocera (Jan 4, 2009)

Thanks for the input. These guys DO have some spangles, but not many. For some reason they didn't show up in the pics at all.


----------



## dhaneyart (Aug 18, 2009)

here's a web link to a site with lots of photos.

http://www.geocities.com/napavalley/5491/photos.html

Yours look similar to lepidota, lucius, proteus, and I stopped looking at that point.

here's a pic of mine about 2 years since getting at the pet store at about 3"...he's prolly about 8" now and just finished inhaling a nightcrawler.


----------



## straitjacketstar (Mar 8, 2004)

If they have spangles they should develop more as they get older. They're fantastic pikes to have. Very personable although they will become fiercely aggressive against one another and max out at around 10" or slightly more.
These are some I picked up myself a few years back:



























I bought 4, the smallest was picked on to death and I had to pick my favorite of 3 to part with the other two since they could not co-exist in a 135 gallon tank after they got around 8".
My keeper turned out like this:


















I never got a positive ID on them either. Best I could do myself was C. sp. "Pacaya".


----------



## dhaneyart (Aug 18, 2009)

in re: to straitjacketstar, this pic is off the website I have listed above..looks a lot like yours.


----------

