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Benga


polecat

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I went to a shop and saw these fish that were labelled benga. I have never seen them before. I quite like them, I watched them for about 15 minutes and they seemed quite placid, almost a friendly cichlid. I asked about them and the answer was, "We have just got them in". Further questioning provided me with the answer that the young girl in the shop knew sweet nothing about the fish and the store owner knew about the same.

My questions are:

Where are they from?

What sort of tempremant do they have?

Are the anything like Princess Lyretails in a species tank?(Once bitten, never going there again although I love the fish! No wonder we still declare war on rabbits!)

Are they good in an general African tank, I was told they are Africans?

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I assume they are aulonocara baenschi. Yellow with blue face? It's a peacock from lake Malawi. They are a placid cichlid best kept with other placid cichlids. They suit African communities if kept with the right species. Top fish, one of my favorites :thumbup:

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Aulonocara baenschi 'benga' are one of the smaller peacock species and are found near Benga, Lake malawi. they are quite mellow and should be kept with other mellow species. they will crossbreed with other Aulonocara species(and haps for that matter) so if you intend on breeding them, keep them in a species only tank. also there are alot of poorly breed bengas getting around so make sure you choose well :thumb

hope this helps a bit.

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They are very passive and really nice. The true benga doesn't have much of a blue face unlike the "sunshine peacock". here is my lad:

IPB Image

My fella took a long time to colour up and he only shows his true colours with electric yellows and by themselves

cheers

rosco

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the the late reply, been busy. None of the above apply. The fish look almost camo pattern with darker spots or more to the point splotches. No face markings and no stripes. I think the young lass in the shop may have missed where I was pointing and got another fish!

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what colour was the blotching ?

if it was tones of brown and cream

sounds like one of the Nimbochromis species and I'd guess Venustus

as it's the most common

other candidates are Livingstoni, Polystigma or Fuscoteniatus

if it was multi coloured blotches it could be an OB Peacock

do a search with these names and let us know

Chris

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