mike dunagan;602686; said:
yes i just went visiting some sights for info and found that the female is indeed different... now that is going to be a little tougher to distinguish but i am going to do more looking..thanks
need some help with ID please!!
- Thread starter Red Devil
- Start date
yes i just went visiting some sights for info and found that the female is indeed different... now that is going to be a little tougher to distinguish but i am going to do more looking..thanks
remember that there are types that the females and males are blue. The sp with yellow female are harder to find without ordering. However easy to tell male from female. You can always catch it and flip it over to check... also the yellow type the males are yellow until they mature... making it even harder... also they are more aggressive than the ones that start blue... I hope that was not confusing... oh and the yellow sp look a lot like three or four other fish... good lucky. the good thing is that they can all go together becuase they are mbuna... also the blue are terrific... behavior is so great to watch... truly one of my fav mbuna...
mike dunagan;602797; said:remember that there are types that the females and males are blue. The sp with yellow female are harder to find without ordering. However easy to tell male from female. You can always catch it and flip it over to check... also the yellow type the males are yellow until they mature... making it even harder... also they are more aggressive than the ones that start blue... I hope that was not confusing... oh and the yellow sp look a lot like three or four other fish... good lucky. the good thing is that they can all go together becuase they are mbuna... also the blue are terrific... behavior is so great to watch... truly one of my fav mbuna...
I think i know where to go to get a complete profile on the different stages of the male and females life with pictures..so i am going there now, this is quite fascinating to me because i did not think they{electric blue johanni} were so different from each other if they are different..and if they are different does that make them two different species of Johanni?? Anyway i agree they are beautiful and yes mine has good behavior with all the other lake Malawi cichlids he is with,,,,, at least i think they are all Lake Malawi ..i am still investigating some of them. thanks again
If it helps any the black pigmentation on the fish does not look, in any way, normal. Possibly a heavy but not life-threatening parasitic infestation or a quirk of malnutrition or something else that might have to do with the fish's diet.
Over the past few months I've observed a tank of female "Mixed Peacock", quite expetedly hybrids, at a local chain store with the same issue. The pigment increases and there's nothing to positively identify the occurance.
To add, it's not a phenomenon uncommonly observed in African cichlids. This type of [gradual] coloration has been said to be caused by certain diets or even the parasitic cysts of shellfish. How to fix the problem either way? I've yet to find much on that topic.
Your fish looks mostly haplochromine in body shape, tall and slightly compressed laterally, and under the black pigment the likelyhood of a stripey slate grey coloration characteristis of many female and juvenile peacocks and a few other Haps. The face, however, looks to carry some mbuna characteristic. The high poll atop a flat, almost melanochromine head and the flat stop of the upper lip.
It's very difficult to get positive ID's of pure specimens of uncolored Aulonocara sp. and several other hap sp., even more difficult or impossible when your fish comes of very quastionable lineage.
Safe to call the fish a hybrid, being that it has no discerning characterstic that would pin down at least a single genera.
Over the past few months I've observed a tank of female "Mixed Peacock", quite expetedly hybrids, at a local chain store with the same issue. The pigment increases and there's nothing to positively identify the occurance.
To add, it's not a phenomenon uncommonly observed in African cichlids. This type of [gradual] coloration has been said to be caused by certain diets or even the parasitic cysts of shellfish. How to fix the problem either way? I've yet to find much on that topic.
Your fish looks mostly haplochromine in body shape, tall and slightly compressed laterally, and under the black pigment the likelyhood of a stripey slate grey coloration characteristis of many female and juvenile peacocks and a few other Haps. The face, however, looks to carry some mbuna characteristic. The high poll atop a flat, almost melanochromine head and the flat stop of the upper lip.
It's very difficult to get positive ID's of pure specimens of uncolored Aulonocara sp. and several other hap sp., even more difficult or impossible when your fish comes of very quastionable lineage.
Safe to call the fish a hybrid, being that it has no discerning characterstic that would pin down at least a single genera.
I bought him when he was less then an inch in size and he has been this same exact color all this time..almost a year.. if that helps..and i quess i will have to go with him being a hybrid.. which is okay since i did not intend to breed him..although would have been great if he were pure.. but i do not think it has anything to do with nutrition because everyone else in the tank is suburb..unless it is something that just is with him?? what do you think?thanksstraitjacketstar;605188; said:
who knows... just chalk it up to of those things we may never know. Who knows maybe he will or can mate and he/she will have black fry... in which case I want a few... my wife wants an all black african...
