# Mystery yellow cichlid



## rcastillo (Mar 2, 2007)

Please could you help me with this guy? Please excuse the poor picture, he was still in the bag, in the middle of being introduced to the tank.

He's about 1 inch long, and about 18 months old. I don't think he's a Labidochromis Caruleus (no black tip) or a an Msobo (they're REALLY yellow) so I'm at a loss. Thanks!


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Lab/estherae hybrid, which they usually market as "all yellow labs".


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## shumway (Jul 12, 2006)

It could possibly either be a really poorly bred Lab or a Lab/estherae hybrid like Sinister said.

I have a bunch of deformed labs i use for dithers and getting extra tanks set up and all the females look like that pic,You can see a faint line where there should be black on the dorsal like in your pic but they never show any what so ever.

:fish:


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## Malawidolphin (Dec 15, 2006)

I went to purchase some labs from a lady who breeds thousands of them. When I got there, there were tanks and tanks of yellow labs that had been inbred with no new stock introduced and except for a few adults none of the labs had black stripes. There was a tank of large holding females...all yellow. There were no other mbuna in the house so it wasn't a hybrid situation just very poor breeding and conditions. It was a separate small house from the one she lives in and it was full of tanks and the tanks were packed full of fish. I thanked her and took a pass on buying from her.


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## rcastillo (Mar 2, 2007)

He was sold to me as a lab caruleus so i was quite surprised when the black tip never came! I'm sure the shop is first-rate however, so I don't think poor conditions would be it.


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Well actually, now that I'm looking at it harder and that I'm actually awake (lol was kind of early when I first posted), you can actually make out a very, very faint bar on the dorsal like a normal lab would have. It may just be something the flash picked up, rather than something you actually see yourself when looking at the fish...


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## cevvin (May 2, 2008)

are you guys sure its not a male m. lombardoi? Thats what my male looks like. I seriously thought it was one of my pictures lol


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Absolutely 120% positive it's not a male kenyi  But I would be interested to see _your_ kenyi male now...


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

Only in theory could you have someone line-breed the black out of a fish without hybridization.

Far more likely was that it's been masked by hybridization.

With that in mind, I have no problem just simplifying to "Any breeder with all-yellow labs is breeding hybrids and I do not care what they claim or what flimsy excuse they attempt to throw at you like buying from reputable breeder X Y Z, buying WC fish, or ANY excuse. "

They are either clueless, lying or both.

Malawidolphin... that lady had hybrids... I am 10000000% positive and would bet money on it!

:wink:


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

I was just posting in another thread about this....
I bought a fish at WalMart that I thought was a yellow lab red zebra mix then I saw the profile of Metriaclima barlowi and now I'm not so sure. I'll have to get batteries for my camera so I can take another pic of it. It's fins are starting to take on a blue hue like the profile of the M. barlowi says the males have. It says the females are brown though so I guess if it turns out to be female it's not the barlowi for sure.


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## newcichlidowner (Aug 20, 2008)

possible female yellow lab...my female didnt show her black line until after her first pouch of eggs...and even now she doesnt always show it.


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

SinisterKisses said:


> Lab/estherae hybrid, which they usually market as "all yellow labs".


agreed


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## wheatbackdigger (May 11, 2008)

1 inch at 18 months? That is one slow growing fish


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## Luey (Aug 27, 2004)

That looks like what I have. But I don't know if mine are lab x zebra or lab x kenyi. My buddy bought them and they took over his tank, so he gave me the original breeders. And mine are no where near sterile. I think my dominant male is a kenyi, I mean he looks almost exactly like the pictures in the Kenyi profile. But the fry have a different head shape than he does, there head shape is very much like yours. 
Anyway, I will try to get some pictures up of my tank so you guys can see what I am talking about...


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## nchoe123 (Nov 11, 2007)

unlike, say, ligers, tigons, and mules, these cichlid hybrids aren't sterile.

hmm. i have a line-less "lab" that i'm thinking is a red zebra also.


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