tranced Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 i know this topic has come up before, and ive read the threads and am still confused. how do you tell an L. meeli from an L. hequi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tranced Posted May 6, 2010 Author Share Posted May 6, 2010 well thanks for the stellar response Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priscacara Posted May 6, 2010 Share Posted May 6, 2010 Sorry you got no replies, I hadnt seen the post before so guess I just missed it or didnt feel qualified to answer. I'm still not qualified, I googled and all I could find so far was an opinion that they may be the same fish with a diferent name because of location. Most of the hits were the same question n diferent forums so may have been your posts :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akroyd Posted May 7, 2010 Share Posted May 7, 2010 http://www.aceforums.com.au/index.php?show...39&hl=meeli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tranced Posted May 7, 2010 Author Share Posted May 7, 2010 good thread there!!! thanks it has some great info, but as all threads on this particular issue you kind of walk away feeling more confused than when you started... here is some pics. best i can do for now. will eventually get some better shots but these show at least why i am confused here OK so i bought these fish as 'hequi'. when i questioned the guy intently about it he realised he wasnt really sure what they are. a pair bond formed so i put them alone in this tank. and moved the extras elsewhere. here is the female and here is the male ok so they normally look like this, very pale, kinda fat and with the sloping forehead (reminds me of an ornatapinnis but less pronounced) when they get exited they get dark barring allover them. OK NOW these fish i bought as 'meeli' but they were from bayfish so... they were a pair when i bought them. they both are in another tank with the odds and ends from the first pairing you see above you. (the 'hequi') they are clearly not the same species or at least different variants. the others look exactly like the fish pictured above, but these guys look like this... this is the female i think. normally she is HEAPS darker than this, in fact this is the lightest i have ever seen her. i think she started stressing because i put a super bright t5 on the tank to take the photos (tank normally unlit) but that in itself is wierd, the earlier fish get darker when stressed, she got lighter. here the male... he shows the differences more clearly, he has a constant dark barred pattern on him. it goes from dark to super dark but never anything else. he never loses these bars. his face looks more 'pointy' or at least the jaw is underslung to some degree. he also has a dark blue/grey 'facemask' his body shape is overall leaner than the other type of fish i have (above) another shot of the male, and in this pic you see some of the extra fish from the pairing of the very first fish i showed you above. they look similar in some ways but so very different in others. they are subtle but there for sure. the first type are paler, fatter, flatter faced and gain barring with exitement or stress. the second type are darker, leaner, pointy faced and are constantly barred, this fades a little bit when stressed. well hopefully this is of some interest to the tang fans out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priscacara Posted May 7, 2010 Share Posted May 7, 2010 I tried shellies a while back and in the end never really knew what sort they were (still dont!). Mine had similar barring but it only showed when they were being teritorial. They could be nasty buggers too, ended up with 3 left from 7 from fighting. Great fish very entertaining and curious once they got used to their surrounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucem Posted May 11, 2010 Share Posted May 11, 2010 I see you've been doing a lot of research on other sites, but there still seems to be considerable confusion and a good case for a taxonomic revision of the meeli/boulengeri/hecqui group. My "hecqui" (or are they meeli ) chop and change from the dark blotching to a pearl colour. Mood seems to be a big factor in their colour/patterns. Here is a pic of my female I took some time ago. Had a look in Konings book this morning and he has meeli as a synonym for hecqui. He considers them one in the same, so maybe some of the patterning is more to do with variation within the species than features of different separate species. Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobbin4 Posted May 11, 2010 Share Posted May 11, 2010 www.africancichlids.net/articles/lepidiolamprologus_hecqui Try this, Yep you right Bruce, Try the Google button to get even more confused, Ad konnings seems to not be sure as well. So who knows then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucem Posted May 11, 2010 Share Posted May 11, 2010 Interesting article Dobbin but it creates more confusion for me. I've got two relatively large shells in the tank. My pair dig around the shell (as described in the article) which the female occupies and breeds in, and the male occupies the other shell, and fits inside it! He is out most of the time, but there are ocassions where he is in it a lot. He was probably inside the shell more before I added Leleupi to the tank (6x20 - frontosa are also in there). Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tranced Posted May 12, 2010 Author Share Posted May 12, 2010 well at least im not the only one stumped about this some bad news, the female from the second pair jumped to her death, so i will not be able to breed this species/variation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priscacara Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 Sorry to hear about the loss, I've been lucky and only lost 1 lemon cichlid from jumping. Also lost 1 shellie when I took a shell out and forgot to check it but we wont talk about that :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tranced Posted May 14, 2010 Author Share Posted May 14, 2010 ouch! on a lighter note, how awesome do these fish look when u use a decent camera?!?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucem Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 So is that a meeli or a hecqui? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dobbin4 Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 hecqui !!!!! What??? No lids on your tank in winter hate to have your power bill How many fish surprise you how far they can jump to their death Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tranced Posted May 15, 2010 Author Share Posted May 15, 2010 she jumped thru the corner thats cut for the power cords! and half of that was covered over by the tank brace! must have been a 2cm x 2cm hole ! i would guess its a meeli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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