New African Cichlid Tank - Video

[Acura_RSX]

[video=youtube;wCGY0poj53g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCGY0poj53g&feature=plcp&context=C4de62a5VDvjVQa1PpcFPOrJS91P5iOD9I3e5Tv7tW 8JBiW5N45To%3D[/video]

Stock (with names):

1x Sciaenochromis ahli -> Ali
1x Nimbochromis venustus -> Leo
1x Iodotropheus sprengerae -> Rusty
1x Labidochromis caeruleus -> Tang
1x Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Msuli) -> Trigger
1x Maylandia lombardoi -> Miranda
1x Placidochromis milomo -> Kahlua
1x Melanochromis auratus -> Khalifa
1x ___??____ (Orange Mbuna) -> Comet
2x Clown Loaches -> Dewalt & Chester

I do have a couple question for all of you .. I brought home the auratus along with acei and the orange mbuna a couple of days ago.

1) ID for the orange Mbuna?

2) The auratus appears to be male from its coloration. When I picked him out of the assorted tank at the lfs he was black and looked like he does in my video, however, when I was holding the fish bags and paying for my fish, myself and my girlfriend looked at him in the bag and he was completely yellow with his stripe turned black (Identical to the pictures of females I've seen. He stayed this color until I got him in my tank where he first went greyish and within an hour was back to the original black color. Can someone explain this to me?

 

[C L O W N K N I F E]

Nice tank and fish, the orange mbuna is most likely a metriaclima estherae. & I do not have an explanation as to why your male melanochromis auratus changed to more of a female coloration in the bag, sorry. But I just looked it up for you and it says "because Auratus have the ability to change gender color. Most commonly, this is the case of an all-female tank where the most dominant assumes the male role, and changes in coloration but no actual gender change. Very rarely will a male change into a female."

 

[Acura_RSX]

Thanks! I forgot to mention he was sharing a bag with the orange Mbuna (thanks for id) .. so possibly the metriaclima estherae is male and for some reason the auratus changed to female coloration because of this.

 

[Dayvydp]

very nice, i like the aquascape

 

[C L O W N K N I F E]

Thanks! I forgot to mention he was sharing a bag with the orange Mbuna (thanks for id) .. so possibly the metriaclima estherae is male and for some reason the auratus changed to female coloration because of this.

Ya maybe he did, that is so cool that they have that ability. I never knew auratus had that ability until I looked it up an hour ago

oh and I was wrong, online it says that females and males have this ability! sorry...so I think you may have a dominant female auratus

 

[C L O W N K N I F E]

Did some further research and theres one guy who claims he had a female auratus change into male coloration to dominant the tank lol. They also say M. Auratus females only change to male coloration when there are no other male M. Auratus around or in the tank

 

[Acura_RSX]

very nice, i like the aquascape

Thanks! I just re-scaped this tank last week. removed the driftwood plant scape I had and went for a more natural cichlid set-up.

Ya maybe he did, that is so cool that they have that ability. I never knew auratus had that ability until I looked it up an hour ago

oh and I was wrong, online it says that females and males have this ability! sorry...so I think you may have a dominant female auratus

Ya it is pretty interesting! and the two colorations are very different at that. So if this guy was male colored at the lfs and is in my tank now you think it could actually be female but in male coloration?

 

[Acura_RSX]

Did some further research and theres one guy who claims he had a female auratus change into male coloration to dominant the tank lol. They also say M. Auratus females only change to male coloration when there are no other male M. Auratus around or in the tank

Interesting .. on a side note there were I believe two or three other male colored auratus in the tank at the lfs. Baffled

 

[cant009]

I like the look of the tank! And a sciaenochromis ahli? Damn! Those are difficult to find true Sciaenochromis ahli and not scaenochromis fryeri. Congrats!

 

[Acura_RSX]

I like the look of the tank! And a sciaenochromis ahli? Damn! Those are difficult to find true Sciaenochromis ahli and not scaenochromis fryeri. Congrats!

Thanks! I wasn't sure if I was going to stick with the slate rocks at first or find a different kind but they've grown on me now and I like the look. And as for the ahli, yeah he was just a coincidence. Stopped into an lfs that I don't usually go to as they specialize mostly in saltwater but randomly decided to pop in that visit and had to have him as soon as I seen him. From all the pictures I've looked at online he looks most like the pictures I've seen of ahli's as opposed to the other few blue fish I've looked at. You say it is generally hard to find these?