Weird Spots on fish

[AlexCR]

Hi everyone. This fish is in a communitarian thank with some American cichlids. First I would like to know if this is an Mbuna, and second, those brown marks in all his body wasn't there according to my colleges. It is a disease or it is normal on them? i assume due to the setup of the aquarium, with a wood stump, that the Ph is low here. But I cannot take measures of the water.

Thank you guys.

 

[duanes]

Yes it is an Mbuna, probably Labidochromis caeruleus and the brown looks fairly normal to me, as they age this species may develop new color patterns (not always keeping the solid lemon yellow hue). Some are yellow, some white, there is a variant from Lundo island that is steal grey/blue with blank bands, it all depends on what part of Lake Malawi the ancestors came from. And over the years the aquarium strains have been interbred, and hybrid so one never knows how some will end up.
There are a few species of Metriclimia that also look very similar M. barlow is one.
All these Malawi fish prefer high pH water laden with minerals, and if your water is low pH and mineral poor this may effect coloration.

 

[AlexCR]

Thank you!!!