Tail Tales

By George J. Reclos 

Some very common questions asked whenever a hobbyist tries to identify the species kept in his tank have to do with the appearance or the anatomy of the fish. The characteristic most often referred is the color of the fish usually accompanied by its melanin pattern. Sometimes we also refer to their anal fins and especially to their color, the presence, color and size of eggspots, or the shape of the tail. Here I just took some photos of that portion of my fish and I hope you will agree with me that each species is different from the others. It is true that most of us do not pay much attention to the other end of the fish because we are normally attracted by the side and the face (perhaps looking for expression of emotions). However, tails and anal fins have their own story to tell. It would be interesting to try to identify any or all of these species based on those photos. I am sure that most of Malawi cichlid fans will be able to recognize at least four species. Warning: there may be two photos of the same species.. and – of course – not all of them are cichlids.. So don’t look at the Atlas to see which cichlid has this beautiful zebra-like tail! By the way, there is something I learned during this session: Taking pictures of fish tails is far more difficult than taking the fish itself.

After you give it a try, click on an image to see the full picture and the species it belongs to.

Just a note: Despite what you may think, it is much more difficult to take a good shot of a fish tail. The fish uses it all the time while focusing at macro mode is already critical. As a result, less than 25% of the shots are acceptable.