Macmasteri or Viejita?

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@fgn.net>]

Colin,

I don't know if I can really help you or not.
Separating wild A. macmasteri from A. viejita is
not that difficult. A. macmasteri has a deeper
body than A. viejita. A. macmasteri has a broader
lateral band than A. viejita. It is usually seen
as a broken row of spots on A. macmasteri, even on
males. Male A. viejita typically show a continuous
band. The abdominal stripes on A. macmasteri are
much less prominent than those on A. viejita. The
caudal spot on A. macmasteri is more or less
rectangular in shape, while the spot on A. viejita
it has a more round to oval, or even half moon
shape. The caudal fin is usually squared off or
double tipped on A. macmasteri. The caudal fin of
A. viejita is usually round with tiny upper &
lower tips. The males of A. viejita have very long
dorsal & anal fins that can extend well beyond the
end of the caudal fin. The dorsal & anal fins are
much shorter on A. macmasteri males. And last, the
top edge of the dorsal fin of A. viejita is a nice
red color, running from the 2nd dorsal spine to
the back tip of the soft dorsal. A. macmasteri
rarely shows red on the top edge of the dorsal
fin. Instead it is usually silver colored with
minor red, mostly on the soft part of the dorsal
fin.

Now that I have described the differences, I
should let you know that I am not certain that A.
viejita & A. macmasteri are different species.
They are 2 very closely related forms. In 2000
some fish were imported into Germany that even had
characteristics intermediate between A. macmasteri
& A. viejita. If you have domestic A. macmasteri
there is a good chance that somewhere in their
family history A. viejita was accidentally or
purposely mixed with them. Between 1985 & 2000
most of the fish sold as 'A. viejita' - wild or
domestic - were not the real (holotype) A.
viejita. Usually we got a closely related form
called A. sp. Red-flecked/Rotflecken (or A.
viejita color form II), itself probably a
geographic color form of A. sp.
Black-throat/Schwarzkehl (or A. viejita color form
III). Whether or not all 4 of these forms are
populations of one wide ranging species awaits
more detailed study of distribution, morphology, &
possibly DNA.

Mike Wise

Colin Gorton wrote:

> Last week I bought 3 Viejitas (1M, 2F) which
> have just produced free swimming fry:-),
> unfortunately there seems to be some doubt as to
> whether they are Viejitas or Macmasteris. I've
> got Uwe Römer's book but that doesn't really
> clear up my doubt, can anybody tell me something
> which will help me to be sure what I've got?
> C:-)lin

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