Pair id

[Deadeye]

I just picked up a pair of assorted Africans, but I’ve never seen this species before, just curious what they are.
I thought kenyis, but the male is the blue one and the female is yellow.

 

[Milingu]

Male and female may be, but not the same species.
There are species with yellow females but their males all look different than your bluish fish.

 

[Deadeye]

Yeah, they don’t look too alike, but acted like a pair in the store. The yellow could be a lab, my other guess could be salousis.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

If ya got them from an assorted African tank there is a 90% chance that they are hybrids of some kind. If they are hybrids, it's a 100% guarantee that we won't be able to properly ID the gender or species they are. It's very rare to find pure bred fish in an assorted tank. The best we can do is speculate and guess on what they could or could not be mixes of.

 

[Deadeye]

I’m really just hoping I can get a pair out of it, I guess I’ll see when they grow.

 

[deeda]

I’m really just hoping I can get a pair out of it, I guess I’ll see when they grow.

You do know that Malawi cichlids aren't pairing fish correct? While they may spawn together, the time the female will be holding eggs she will be stressed by the male still wanting to spawn.

 

[Deadeye]

I actually did not. I guess I just assumed they acted like Americans when spawning (minus the mouthbrooding).

 

[Magnus_Bane]

I actually did not. I guess I just assumed they acted like Americans when spawning (minus the mouthbrooding).

In the wild you'll have massive schools (thousands upon thousands) of these fish breeding together. Usually it's 1 male to 4-5 females and the female aren't too particular about who's eggs they pick up. The females generally just pool all their eggs together and have a single male fertilize em, afterwards the females just pick up a mouthful of eggs and swim away to find some place to hide and lay low at away from other fish. Most breeders will have a large tank filled with only 1 male to 2-3 females to kind of simulate this behavior on a much smaller scale.

 

[Deadeye]

Cool, you learn something new every day.
Thanks

 

[Joshuakahan]

I actually did not. I guess I just assumed they acted like Americans when spawning (minus the mouthbrooding).

With mbuna you want to have a colony, 1 male and 3 or 4 females. If you want to save the fry, put the holding female in a different tank and then either strip or wait for her to spit them out and put her back