BIG LIPPED DEVILS

[fishman09]

i think madness red devil was raised from a smaller size and developed the lips as he grew so to me that sounds genetic cause at a smaller size it did not have the big rubber lips and now has very large lips. beautiful fish to see in person btw

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[RD.]

There really is no debate here, all of this has been fairly well documented over the years.

The vast majority of all wild caught labiatus (as well as some strains of wild citrinellus) have large fleshy lips, and their captive bred offspring do not. As previously stated, this is exactly how it plays out with wild vs captive bred Rift Lake cichlids that have large fleshy lips in the wild, such as Placidochromis milomo. Their lips are pronounced due to their feeding technique in the wild.



Madness lab is wild caught, and as seen in the link below had fleshy lips at 6". As the fish has grown, so has the overall size of its lips.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...Red-Devil-Growth-Thread&p=5552730#post5552730

Some of Jeff Rapps various wc labiatus that he imported over the years.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...Rapps-photographic-library-of-wild-red-devils

If it was simply a case of genetics, then one would see captive bred Amphilophus with large fleshy lips, which is not the case.

 

[fishman09]

waant trying to debate anything just recalled wrong. very cool info as usual rd. so is the feeding habit of the devils that much different than other amphs as to the fat lips happens more so in devils? seems like this could happen in certain regions of lakes that require this kind of feeding causing a population in that area getting fat lips so how do we distinguish wc fish between the amph species?

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[RD.]

As explained in the sticky below, distinguishing some of the different species of wild amphilophus isn't always an easy thing to do.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...f-citrinellus-A-potential-case-of-F1-Midevils

It seems clear that the feeding behaviour of the fish will determine some of the physical characteristics of the fish, such as body shape, head shape, jaw size, lip size, and even size of the eyes.

 

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

Exactly, it's not so much a case of what they eat, but how they eat. You'll see the same thing with some of the fish found in the Rift Lakes, such as Placidochromis milomo.

http://cichlidlovers.com/p_milomo.htm

You won't see those large rubbery lips in captive bred fish, either. In the wild, those thick lips serve as gaskets, and are used to extract prey from the cracks and crevices in the rock piles where they feed. Over time their lips become calloused, and enlarged.

True & that may also explain why the lichnochromis acuticeps have one of the narrowest mouths/face out of all the african rift lake cichlids.