"Malawi eye-biter" (dimidiochromis compressiceps)

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MalawiTango;2694966; said:
the coloration looks like the juvie I had that just colored up nicely. Give it some time and see if he colors up.
Click to expand...

...and martians still live in space, but Obama is the right choice :naughty:






Anyway, fun left aside ABSOLUTELY Dimidiochromis Strigatus, akas Haplochromis Sunset.

The snout, the color on the extremities, the interupted line should have been a few to tip you off that it is not a Compressiceps. I wouldn't feel very bad, it's a nice fish.

adult
http://www.cichlidlovers.com/d-strigatus.jpg
maturing male
http://img85.exs.cx/img85/7916/Striga01.jpg
http://www.cichlidae.com/gallery/Dimidiochromis/strigatus-01.jpg
 
This fish is indeed no Compressiceps and like said looks more like a Strigatus. I keep/kept both these fish and you can clearly see the difference between these species once you have seen them swimming besides each other. The juveniles/fry have completely different forms as well.

Hmz wanted to post pics of my dimidiochromis fish, but see that my GF removed the Strigatus photo's from my site. I don't breed with this species actively anymore.

The difference between the 2 species as juveniles is the form of the body. The compressiceps tends to have a higher body build and is thinner. Furthermore the compressiceps has 2 distinct horizontal lines on its body, one in the middle and 1 closer to the back fin. Where a Strigatus will show 1 line in the middle of the body.

Uncolored Compressiceps Male
Dimidiochromis_Compressiceps7.jpg


this is my Compressiceps male starting to color
Dimidiochromis_Compressiceps5.jpg


the same speciman a few months later
Dimidiochromis_Compressiceps3.jpg



All these photo's are from the same male. This is the current Male I am breeding with
 
Wimmels;2700701; said:
This is the current Male I am breeding with
Click to expand...

"I am breeding." ...loose the "with" otherwise PETA might accuse you of molesting them ;)

Great looking male Wimmels, I should check your blog again, you are always a wealth of information. How's that big tank project going, last time I checked it just broke on you.
 
I am still living in a small house so didn't start the project yet. This financial crisis hit us in Europe prety well too. Still waiting for the rent to go down.

I did build 3 175x100x50(875 liter or 230 gallon) tanks in the meatime to house my larger growing Motoro and Hystrix though.

Thank you for correcting me on my previous post, but I can't edit it anymore
 
well the strigatus is a great looking fish but i would like to bring up the fact that store i purchaced it from mislabeled the fish...the thing i dont understand is how a fish store as reputable as this could have made a mistake being that u said the identification is very clear
 
i hate to question the knowledge of the owner because he's been in the business for quite a while but this matter angers me a bit so i think ill confront them about their mistake
 
by the way wimmels if you could post a picture of a strigatus about 3 to 4 inches long of your own, that would be a great reference (i did some looking around on the web and couldnt find a picture of a strigatus that matched the looks of my fish)
 
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