Is this Frontosa?

[duanes]

Looks like a baby Frontosa, but there are also 3 species that look very close to Frontosa, but aren't, so you may want to google them to compare.

Neolamprologis tetrocephalus
Neolamprologus sexfasciatus
And Plecodus straeleni, which mimics the look of the mild-mannered fronts in order to eat the scales of other cichlids

 

[neutrino]

Plecodus straeleni are rare in the hobby. Odds that's what you have are virtually nil from any but a high end and specialist cichlid shop and very low from a private seller, who would have to be pretty dumb to sell a rare fish as a (comparatively) common one if it was a giberrosa and even more common for frontosa.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Plecodus straeleni are rare in the hobby. Odds that's what you have are virtually nil from any but a high end and specialist cichlid shop and very low from a private seller, who would have to be pretty dumb to sell a rare fish as a (comparatively) common one if it was a giberrosa and even more common for frontosa.

Mistakes do happen tho. I've had it plenty of times where I would get the wrong fish from the LFS just because it got mislabeled or jumped into a different tank. Had that happen with my barred tiger botia loach, bought as a zebra loach, and my giant gourami I bought, as a female dwarf gourami, as a baby. I find that those mistakes happen most often with ppl that aren't familiar with that particular specie.

 

[neutrino]

Mistakes do happen tho. I've had it plenty of times where I would get the wrong fish from the LFS just because it got mislabeled or jumped into a different tank. Had that happen with my barred tiger botia loach, bought as a zebra loach, and my giant gourami I bought, as a female dwarf gourami, as a baby. I find that those mistakes happen most often with ppl that aren't familiar with that particular specie.

Lol. A "dwarf gourami" that keeps growing and growing and growing...

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Lol. A "dwarf gourami" that keeps growing and growing and growing...

Haha yeah, he got to be 14in before the pleco killed him. I will say tho even tho I bought it thinking it was something else I still loved having that big mean brute of a fish. It was fun to feed him lol.

 

[confusedfishkeeper]

Plecodus straeleni are rare in the hobby. Odds that's what you have are virtually nil from any but a high end and specialist cichlid shop and very low from a private seller, who would have to be pretty dumb to sell a rare fish as a (comparatively) common one if it was a giberrosa and even more common for frontosa.

So I accidentally bought a rare fish? Wow!

However, it was wasn't a small fish store which sold me these. I bought them from what is pretty much one of the biggest wholesale market of marine / freshwater fish in my country. The sellers are usually very knowledgeable, but messed up this time. I got this for $3.5 dollars each (how much should they actually cost?). I initially bought 2, but this thread got me curious, so I bought 2 more.

Loving all the info I got in this thread.

 

[confusedfishkeeper]

Sorry to dig up an old thread. Here is a picture of the adult specimen I bought. Probably this will help to identity if it is Plecodus straeleni or Frontosa or some related specie?

 

[Milingu]

100% Cyphotilapia

 

[confusedfishkeeper]

100% Cyphotilapia

Is it gibberosa ? 6 stripes?

 

[Milingu]

I think it is either sp. north or a mix.

But as you can see in the discussion above the terminology is not so clear any more. - At least not to me.

But no matter how they are properly called at the moment there are at least three if not four groups with different appereance.
- 7-Stripes + diffenrent black pattern on the cheeks (nothern part of the lake only between Kigoma and Boulombora) --> frontosa
- 6 stripes less blue, brown/gold in the fins (northern part of the lake) sp. north or "6-bar-frontosa"
- 6 stripes and a lot of blue in the fins (southen part of the lake) gibberosa
- 6 stripes and a lot of blue in the fins + black coloration between the gillplates (west coast between Moliro and Kitumba) gibberosa


Here are some maps that it show it quite good.