Which mbuna is this?

[Ankit Naidu]

i got this from my lfs. He said it's a butterfly mbuna but I didn't find anything about them online! Can u guys please help me ID this!

 

[Grinch]

Interesting looking fish. Doesn't look mbuna to me. Maybe some derivative of a peacock?

 

[RD.]

Butterfly mbuna? This is exactly why many people who keep African cichlids hate hybrids, and despise common names. It's also why most serious breeders/hobbyists buy wild caught fish, or F1 offspring of same, with provenance back to a known collection location.

Not because they are all anal, but because most people have been stung buying fish of unknown genetics, only to realize it later. The only Malawi cichlid that I know to be commonly referred to as "butterfly" is the Aulonocara jacobfreibergi, and your fish is not a jacobfreibergi. Good luck.

 

[stempy]

Definitely a hybrid I cringe at the future of african cichlids in the aquarium trade..

 

[SpeedRacer]

Agreed. The names that unscrupulous sellers are coming up with is out of control.

 

[BIG-G]

I believe that greed is driving the sell of these less than great quality hybrids.

Look I have nothing against hybrids when it's done correctly. Like the flowerhorn market. You know that you don't know what you're getting when you buy a flowerhorn. If that makes sense.

But when I see fish stores and breeders selling these mutts as some new breed of Africans .I agree with stempy I cringe to think about the future of Africans in the hobby.

 

[mattison187]

Yea some kind of peacock hybrid. A little off topic, but keep an eye on the auratus (striped fish in third pic) as your fish mature. They become quite the handful

 

[markstrimaran]

Does it pick up mouthfuls of sand?
Does it pick at algea.