New To Mbuna Can You Id My Fish Please?, Calling all experts! :P

[glenbo]

Yeh I will 'attempt' to catch him later...dman idiots in the LFS sold him as a Mbuna to me ...my fault i guess should of read up first.

Heres some new pics and a video (to help with the ID's and help me learn about my new pets )

Heres my video of my tank and fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGGCInZXgOw

 

[glenbo]

If you look at the Yellow Labs closely youll see I have one that looks similar but is very orange :S any idea what he is also?

And any idea on the black looking ones? somebody said they are bumblebee cichlids but somebody on another site said thats no way a bumble bee (i really dont wnat it to be)

Also somebody told me only Mbuna have the egg spots on the fins...is this true? if so pretty much all of them have except for the Livingstonii (obviously) and the Melanochromis auratus.

 

[ibr3ak]

I'm still sticking to my id's earlier.

I only see labs that are yellow, are you talking about the solid orange fish with no black stripes? That's a red zebra. If in fact you do have an orange looking lab, it could be a lab x estherae cross, unfortunately all too common in the hobby these days.

Does the black fish have a white tail and white tips on its fins?

Also in addition, the blue fish with black stripes, in the 2nd and 4th pics is a ps. socolofi.

Most of the african cichlids have the eggspots, not just mbuna.

 

[glenbo]

No the black ones are just a plain pretty boring black...they looked purple in the shop.but they where using Blue lights...didnt realsie till after.

They look exactly like the one you call a red zebra but a black.grey colour.

This is one of them

 

[ibr3ak]

I think those are the blue male estheraes, just a different color morph (blue males/orange females, as opposed to both sexes being orange/red).

 

[kingyella]

somebody hit up the assorted african cichlid tank.

If i were you, i would return everything and start over, get store credit and buy some equipment, because if the guy sold you a hap as a mbuna he obviously don't know much. Research mbuna and see exactly what species you like and go from there. These fish like to be in groups of there own kind with a good m/f ratio. good luck.

 

[swede]

i would rearrange the rockwork a bit. it isn't really setup to allow territories. you would be better off having a few piles of stones with some crack and openings or stack the rocks up in a way that has many cracks and openings and separations to allow multiple territories

 

[swede]

livingstonii will outgrow the tank-they get huge and will possibly eat your mbuna later. id swap them out..

not saying he should keep it and with mbuna and all, but a 120 is too small for livingstonii?

 

[glenbo]

Its deffo going back ^^

The rest are not tho...all tanks in all of my local stores (10 of them) are mixed africans so i'll have to make sure i get the right ones.

Plus in England...they don't just 'let you return them'

But from what i have learned about the Livingstonii...hes is deffo going back.

The rest are all Mbuna so im keeping them.

A friend has just told me he will sell me ten Labs for a few quid so that will bump them to 14 and I'm getting more rocks soon...this is just the first days progress...I only decided to do the tank yesterday!

(plus hidden in the rock pile is loads of open bottomed clay flowerpots)

 

[navygirl76]

i think a livingstonii in a 4 foot tank with mbuna would be cramped-yes. and i think he will just eat the mbuna later in life like my venustus ate mine in a 180 gallon tank.