Purple
- Thread starter Smashlynn
- Start date
Yes. It looks like a yellow tail acei. The purple will stay, but will vary depending on mood, health and dominance. Also, you posted in the central/south American section, your fish is from Africa.
Thanks! I was confused, because pretty sure the parent I was was an orange cichlid and somehow I ended up with a bunch of orange fry, a black with dark stripes and my purple cichlid. (The purple and black are the only two that I have now)
It looks like a hybrid, to my eyes the shape looks wrong for Pseudotropheus acei. Makes sense considering the OP's last comment.
This is the problem with attempting to ID fish from pictures - this hobby is plagued with hybrid fish, and it has become impossible to properly ID fish with mixed genetics when simply viewing a photo posted on the internet.
This is the problem with attempting to ID fish from pictures - this hobby is plagued with hybrid fish, and it has become impossible to properly ID fish with mixed genetics when simply viewing a photo posted on the internet.
Not saying it is or it isn't, but hybrids are not uncommon in that family of cichlids (Malawi mbuna), especially from your average lfs. As for color, varies with individuals, their status in the tank, etc., but it can get even better in adults, just depends.
The other thing to know is while acei are typically one of the milder mbuna, this is still not a fish you'd normally want with angelfish. Too fast, nippy, and aggressive for angelfish is what you'd expect. You don't necessarily see it until they near adulthood, so don't assume that because it works so far that it's permanent. Sometimes odd combinations work for random reasons, but if you start seeing nipped or tattered fins on the angels, or they start acting stressed or jumpy, you can be pretty sure who's responsible-- even if you don't actually see it, sometimes the real aggression happens after lights are out. And if or when the acei decides to beat on the angels he's capable of quickly making a mess of them.
The other thing to know is while acei are typically one of the milder mbuna, this is still not a fish you'd normally want with angelfish. Too fast, nippy, and aggressive for angelfish is what you'd expect. You don't necessarily see it until they near adulthood, so don't assume that because it works so far that it's permanent. Sometimes odd combinations work for random reasons, but if you start seeing nipped or tattered fins on the angels, or they start acting stressed or jumpy, you can be pretty sure who's responsible-- even if you don't actually see it, sometimes the real aggression happens after lights are out. And if or when the acei decides to beat on the angels he's capable of quickly making a mess of them.
Last edited:
Right in the middle of doing so before you posted... I'm multi-tasking, so takes me a while to finish a post.
I got them when they were tiny. I pulled them out of the pumps at a pet store and assumed they were guppies or mollies.... until they got bigger. And the only cichlid we had at that time was the orange cichlid mentioned above.
