# Mbuna Identification Help



## davfish (Mar 20, 2014)

Hello all!

First time poster, frequent lurker, fairly new to fish keeping. I got these guys out of a "Mixed Cichlids" tank for $1.99 each  
Long story short, I quickly realized I got myself some fish that require intensive keeping (when compared to a standard goldfish).

I thought I was getting Metriaclima estherae, where the male is blue and female is orange/etc. My blue's have no egg spots, where the orange ones do.

I have two blue with black stripes, and three who are shades of orange.

The biggest, and most dominant in my tank, is the most bright and striking of orange. 









Another of my orange fish has beautiful blue iridescence on its fins and tail (My phone's camera does it no justice). 









The third "orange" is more of a peach, and has the slot in his dorsal fin. 









My large blue is equal in size to two of the "orange", but not greater than the biggest orange. 









My small blue is the runt of the tank, and receives the most bullying from the larger blue.









After a fair amount of reading, I have come to deduct they are actually Maylandia lombardoi (where the blue are females, and the orange are males) based on temperament, egg spots, and behavior. I'd like to add I have noticed my largest Orange seem to "tolerate" the largest blue, where it chases the other orange away. The larger blue chases the smaller away.

Thank you for your input! :fish:


----------



## greenterror66 (Jan 26, 2014)

The blue ones look like they might be female kenyi, but the orange fish looks like estherae. Usually male Kenyi are more of a yellow color and sometimes as juveniles, they look like the females (blue) before turning yellow with slight brown vertical bars as they get older. Not an expert on African Cichlids. Just a guess. They are very nice fish.


----------



## nmcichlid-aholic (Mar 23, 2011)

Agree with previous post - you have 2 different species here. The orange ones are Metriaclima/Maylandia estherae, and the blue ones are M. lombardoi. Finding blue estherae males is not a very common occurrence, and I would expect them to be labeled as such, rather than being in an "assorted" tank. Your kenyi are showing juvenile/female coloration now, and if either are male you will see them start to turn yellow. If you are intending to breed these fish and keep any fry, you should probably get rid of one species or the other - otherwise you run the risk of hybridization.


----------



## davfish (Mar 20, 2014)

nmcichlid-aholic said:


> Finding blue estherae males is not a very common occurrence, and I would expect them to be labeled as such, rather than being in an "assorted" tank.


I did grab them when they were under 1". I understand all your points, so I ask this: If the kenyi were truly kenyi, and male, what size would I expect them to change to yellow?


----------



## ILCichlid (Feb 27, 2012)

You have an estherae and a hybrid kenyi. Kenyi will change color about the 1.5-2" mark normally.


----------

