# ID me please... mbuna



## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

Please tell me what I am if you can.. there are a lot of photos of me in various moods..

*** been confused for a long time now.. thanks :thumb:


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

There are a couple of pseudo. elongatus variants that look like your fish, check them out in the profiles section


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

yeah main problem is they only display the males, this is IMO a female but I haven't seen anything that matches it anywhere on the net...

thanks for your input anyway :thumb:

anymore people?

surely someone out there has seen this species before.


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## ibr3ak (Jan 4, 2008)

It looks more like a juvie yellow top mbamba female than an elongatus.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

I'll check that out, but shes getting on to one year since I have owned her, should have adult colouring by now. She must be 15 months old.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

ibr3ak said:


> It looks more like a juvie yellow top mbamba female than an elongatus.


That was what I was guessing


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

Ok guys *** found out now..

I went back to the shop and the bloke put them in the tank with a male pseu. flavus, and what do you know, he went beserk. He put on his dancuing shoes and immediatley started showing off his stripes to the new girls that were introduced.

Pseudotroppheus flavus it is. Thanks for all the input here. :thumb:

And curse the guy who said he was 100% certain it was a elongatus mpanga 6 months ago. You were wrong.


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## chris777 (Jun 27, 2008)

Would of been my guess on what it was. Don't look like mine in the last pictures but the first picture reminded me of mine. Here's a picture of my pseu. Flavus.

Sorry for the crappy pic quality


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## chapman76 (Jun 30, 2004)

He doesn't look like any flavus I've kept.


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

That's not a flavus IMO. Does not have the Pseudotropheus body shape for one thing.


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## chris777 (Jun 27, 2008)

Looking at it again its shape is different just woke up when i typed that up lol... As flavus normally have a long slender body correct me if I'm wrong. Which it isn't. Maybe a hybrid with flavus in it?


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## chapman76 (Jun 30, 2004)

Possibly. Flavus are a more elongated species from the group I kept.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

chris777 said:


> Would of been my guess on what it was. Don't look like mine in the last pictures but the first picture reminded me of mine. Here's a picture of my pseu. Flavus.
> 
> Sorry for the crappy pic quality


nah thats awesome, thats exactly how the male looked in the shop when the girls were introduced.. Im going back on Monday to buy the male aswell, now I know what these girls are and what to matche them with Im really excited.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

SinisterKisses said:


> That's not a flavus IMO. Does not have the Pseudotropheus body shape for one thing.


Well maybe the photos dont show it but IMO it has an Pseu. elongatus body shape. The shop guy keeps loads of africans and has an 800 gal peacock tank, he was pretty certain about it, he saw straight away the elongatus shape and said to me the flavus is part of the pseu. elongatus tribe and understood why the other expert thought it was a mpanga while it was a juvi..

Im feeling pretty convinced right now, just seeing the interaction betwen the male in the tank and my two females when introduced pretty much made it certain. You could just see the male, saying "atlast one of my own type in here" as he has been the only flavus in the tank for a quite a while.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

Here are some more photos guys..

Im keen to get a conclusion on this..









typical flavus behaviour??


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

chris777 said:


> Maybe a hybrid with flavus in it?


Thats always possible I suppose, You never know do ya? Maybe thats why they are so hard to identify?


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

Here are some more photos of the same fish as juviniles, and it was these photos that the other guy (with whom Im not too happy about) was 100% certain on them being mpangas...(which clearly they are not)

They look very much lik eflavus in these photos now that I know a little bit more.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

no more comments ??


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Sorry, still not a flavus. At least, not a pure one.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

SinisterKisses said:


> Sorry, still not a flavus. At least, not a pure one.


because of the body shape?


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Body shape for one, colouring for two.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

SinisterKisses said:


> Body shape for one, colouring for two.


Can you explain it? I'm interested..

I didn't know pseudotropheus had a "fixed" body shape, what is it that is wrong,

and the colouring, what is wrong about it, How should a female flavus look like?


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## chapman76 (Jun 30, 2004)

The reason the coloring is wrong IMO is the female always have the barring and didn't show any yellow in mine.

Most genus have a typical shape. Pseudotropheus, Cynotilapia, Labidochromis, etc.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

chapman76 said:


> The reason the coloring is wrong IMO is the female always have the barring and didn't show any yellow in mine.


do you have any photos of yours.. or does anyone have any photos that show how a pure female flavus should like.

If yours didn't show any yellow what colours were in the barring?


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## chris777 (Jun 27, 2008)

plow said:


> SinisterKisses said:
> 
> 
> > Body shape for one, colouring for two.
> ...


Body shape on flavus are long and slender as i said in a previous post.

There's the profile of the flavus if you haven't looked at it maybe it will help.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=889


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## chapman76 (Jun 30, 2004)

plow said:


> do you have any photos of yours.. or does anyone have any photos that show how a pure female flavus should like.
> 
> If yours didn't show any yellow what colours were in the barring?


There are photos in the profile on the site. Sorry, I don't have any. I didn't keep mine all that long. They didn't get along with another species I wanted to keep more in the tank.

My flavus females were just the grey/blue color. Quite boring. That is another reason why I got rid of them and kept the Cyno sp Lion's.

Like the post said above, flavus are a bit elongated.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

chris777 said:


> Body shape on flavus are long and slender as i said in a previous post.


Yeah I saw that, how long and how slender is hard to say, the flavus that these two interacted with at the shop didn't seem as long and slender as a typical elongatus imo, but i do get that flavus are quite long and slender although not a full blooded elongatus.










I was more referring to sinisterkisses idea of what was wrong for it not to be a pseudotropheus. I dont see it, that is what is not typically pseudotropheus in these fish. Im not saying sinisterkiss is wrong, but its good to dicuss these things so maybe we all learn something and its not just chit chat.

The profiles only show two pictures of flavus as juv's, so its hard to say how they look as adults from these profiles. Would be cool to see someones female flavus photos for myself.. (say that 5 times real fast!!)


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

chapman76 said:


> plow said:
> 
> 
> > do you have any photos of yours.. or does anyone have any photos that show how a pure female flavus should like.
> ...


grey blue mine definitiley are not, no grey at all, only a very dark blue tinge, but mainly pale brown with dark brown bars at times of aggression or dominance or otherwsie a dark brown with the dark blue tinge.. I also think that colours can be misleading in aquariums becasue so much depends on your lighting and the reflection off the decor in the tank.

I saw this you tube clip the other day, and can say at my females look identical to this female..






Would you say this female looks like a flavus?


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

I don' t know what more you're expecting...as already said, the body shape is wrong mostly because it's not elongated like a flavus.


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

SinisterKisses said:


> That's not a flavus IMO. Does not have the Pseudotropheus body shape for one thing.


I was hoping you could explain why you think it isn't a pseudotropheus.



SinisterKisses said:


> Body shape for one, colouring for two.


and why you think the colouring is wrong.


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

It doesn't have a typical Pseudotropheus head shape, and the colouring is just wrong because it doesn't look like what a flavus should look like.


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## Aura (Oct 29, 2005)

Here are some pictures of a few of my females. As you can see, they vary depending on mood. They are not always bland, they do not always show bars, and they even show male colors from time to time. I know these are all females because they are holding in each of these pics.

Click the photo for full size:


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## plow (Feb 19, 2008)

thanks for the pictures Aura, awesome.

Interesting to see in some of these pictures that show your females to be so yellow. Mine have never been that yellow, but in the 3rd picture you've posted here I could nearly swear you have taken a photo of my fish.

The variation in the colourings are enormous. Interesting stuff.'

Thanks heaps, really appreciated. :thumb:


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