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we bought this guy about half a week ago to add to our 20 gallon tank. The people at Big Al's didn't know what he was, so he was sold to us labled as "dwarf cichlid'. Haha. He looks somewhat like a dwarf flag cichlid, but i'm not sure. I don't really need to know, he is doing perfectly ok. But, would like to know how big he gets, just in case. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/anti_n00bs/Fish031-1.jpg?t=1176766230

It looks like a thomasi, African Butterfly Cichlid

-Vincent

There isnt a dark spot near the gill, and the lower lip looks a little undershot for a thomasi, even for one that might be stressed. How big is it?

My first guess would be similar to yours, to me it looks like an off colour laetacara dorsigera, a red breasted flag cichlid. Young males have that snubby nosed look, and the square cut tail when young, the rest of the finnage looks dead-on, also the strong spot, and you can see the subsided stripes near the dorsal into which that spot would usually blend a little. A curviceps lateral stripes tend to be horizontal rather than vertical like this.

Probably find its a nice little fish when kept in the right water values.

So youre looking at 10 cm for a big one.

Looks like a Curviceps to me

I would actually say it's a hybrid. If it is a pure species, it would fall into Laetacara or Nannacara. Doesn't quite fit into a thomasi for me. The head shape really offsets the characteristics of the three families though.

he is about one inch max, quite small, but the largest one they had in the tank at the LFS

It looks like an acara but i'm not sure if it's a cuviceps

deinitely leatacara curviceps. i think it miht be a female.
it will grow to about 8cm and IME will eat just about anything.

the stripes on he dwarf flag cichlids are both verticaland horizontal.