ID and asking price? Moba?

jandb

Piranha
MFK Member
Jan 18, 2009
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Lewis Center, OH
Hello. I just bought a large acrylic aquarium with African cichlids. The seller said 8 of the fish are frontosa moba and 2 are bermundi. i believe the fish are just over 3 years old and on average around 6 inches. I'm converting the tank to a large SA community so I would like to sell the fish, holy rock and substrate. Can anyone confirm the ID and give any info on value? Thanks.
 

dragonfish70

Jack Dempsey
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May 1, 2012
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San Diego
Yup from the looks of it you do have some mobas and burundi. I cant tell how many though as the pictures aren't of the whole colony. Mobas most likely they are f1s about that size you can sell $100 a piece easy. Burundi $30


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neutrino

Goliath Tigerfish
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Jan 22, 2013
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Yup from the looks of it you do have some mobas and burundi. I cant tell how many though as the pictures aren't of the whole colony. Mobas most likely they are f1s about that size you can sell $100 a piece easy. Burundi $30


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+1

It's generally hard to distinguish one Zaire type from another, especially from screen images, but if they were sold as moba there's no reason to doubt it. Price is one of those things that depends on various factors, like the market you're in, where you advertise, how many you're selling, size (of course), male or female, or male/female ratio for a group, how fast you want to sell, etc. So I wouldn't predict a hard and fast value for them.

6 inches is on the small side for 3 years old, males especially. For me a certain % of males consistently reach 6 inches in one year, then add an inch or two per year after that-- females tend to be smaller. They do grow slower for some, but 6 inches is on the small side for 3 years. Honestly, to sell them as a group I wouldn't expect to get $100 per F1 fish for a group of 8, especially at that size. For $800 someone could get a WC group, would be a smaller group, but getting into that kind of money most people would probably go WC imo, unless maybe yours were larger, already proven breeders, etc, then hard to say. Depending where you are (or where you advertise and if you can ship) you might get closer to that neighborhood selling them individually or in smaller groups.

Also depends how quickly you want to sell them or how long you're willing to wait for a premium price.
 

jandb

Piranha
MFK Member
Jan 18, 2009
937
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Lewis Center, OH
Thanks for the advice. They may be a bit bigger. I should have tried to measure them when I checked the tank out. The footprint is 12'x3'x2' and he was feeding them high quality foods. I believe they're are 8 Moba and 2 Burundi. I don't believe they've bred. I'm located in Ohio and don't have experience and would prefer not to ship. I'm just looking to recoup some of my investment in the tank.
 

neutrino

Goliath Tigerfish
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Jan 22, 2013
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I've kept Cyphotilapia @15 years and I still find sometimes that in the 5-8 inch range I underestimate their length a bit just looking at them. Has to do with their body proportions I think.

Technically speaking moba aren't frontosa, they're actually the other (very similar) species of Cyphotilapia, which is gibberosa (Burundi and the 7 striped variety are C. frontosa). The differences are in head markings and some more technical characteristics like scale counts, etc. Also, frontosa basically live in the northern part of the lake and gibberosa live in the southern part. Only reason I mention it is it might be easier to deal with or interest a knowledgeable buyer if you use the technically correct name.
 

duanes

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Our club had an auction last weekend, and there were about half dozen bags of 3-5" frontosa (localities sometimes included), 1 individual in each bag. They were going for @ $10 per bag.
This may be low for certain parts of the country, not here, or it may be that no serious frontosa lovers were present.
Here, LFSs usually ask @ $25 each.
 
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