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Malawi Cichlid ID?


Sloany

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Hi all,

I picked these guys up a while ago off a fellow forum member closing down his tanks, but unfortunately he had forgotten their name. I've been growing up for approximately 12 months now and they are approximately 7-8cms.

So over to all the Malawi experts here. What do you think?

IPB Image

IPB Image

IPB Image

IPB Image

IPB Image

I initially thought that the Blue fish were the males and the Orange Blotch (OB) were females so I put 1 Blue in the 4 OB hoping to get some breeding happening. They've started breeding, but earlier in the week I thought I saw a mouthful being held by a Blue and this morning I stripped 11 fry from the Blue fish. So it appears that theory's out. Unless they are bi-parental mouth brooders? What do you think?

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I would have a guess at Labeotropheus fuelleborni, but it could be Labeotropheus trewavasse. I dont know how to tell the fish apart but others should know.

I would have also guessed the male was the blue fish. I have heard of random males mouth brooding fry in other species, maybe it has happened here too

Josh

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Thanks Josh,

They are the two species that I had narrowed it down to also.

I didn't see any breeding taking place but the blue's were the dominant fish in the tanks. But as soon as I saw the mouthful it was keeping out of site and acting like a protective female.

Appreciate the feedback.

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Thank you all for the feedback. So they are Fuelleborni. :thumb

The Blue one holding is apparently female as the females do come in a blue morph but are rarer than OB females.

I'm surprised these are not more popular due to their colour variations. A good mixture of colours for a dislay tank.

I've got about 50 fry at about 1cm growing up, so should have some available in a few months time if anyone is interested.

Thanks again everyone for your replies. :thumbup:

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I know when I used to help out local LFS they were hard to sell because they were serious agressive. I like them personally, under rated fish.

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I thought the Lab fuelleborni male was more blue?The OB look like Lab fueleborni but if you look at the 1st and 2nd photo's that looks like a male and not a fuelleborni, but 4th photo shows a female of the same fish holding a mouthfull? Sorry But???

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Yes. The first two photo's are of the same fish, different to the fourth. The fourth shot is of the blue fish that was holding. I have received some pm's from people that have kept both Fuelleborni and Trewavasae in the past. Fuelleborni has a blue morph females, which were rarer than the OB back when both species were alittle more popular. I've kept the 11 fry from her seperate to the OB fry I currently have to see if there is any difference or a higher ratio of blues. Will have to wait and see....

As for the colour. They are in an open backed tank so they might be alittle pale due to the tank having light coming in from all sides. Having said that, there are a number of location variants that display different shades of blue. In Ad Koning's Book of Cichlids, Page 274, photo 2 is of the Mbenji Island variant which looks almost identical to the fish in the above photos.

I haven't seen too much aggression from them yet. Fingers crossed they all get along.

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i used to keep these as well, both colours bred together and i got mostly the orange black type, had females of both colours, i had about 30 large adults in the colony, equal amounts of colour forms in a 4x2x2, i moved them to a 6 footer with other various cichlids and they were no more agressive than anything else i was keeping them with.

im not sure if they were all fuellborni tho as i herd they breed with Trewavasae and they look very much the same, i dont have them anymore, they all died when my power went out...

i liked them they are in my top 5 favorite cichlids. :)

cheers

pete.

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Ok, So the 1&2 photo is a male blue morph? Nice looking fish in photo & quess better in the flesh, now big.

Female blur morph 4th photo

And rest are ob

Learn something new all the time.

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