# what are these???



## klc9100 (Apr 14, 2009)

i went to a little lfs this weekend. i was looking at the cichlids (small selection) and a girl that worked there came over to help me. she didn't seem to have any idea what she was doing. i found these 2 fish in a tank by themselves. i asked her what they were, and she says, "africans". i asked her to be more specific, and she said that was all she knew. they are really pretty in person (these pics suck). they are both between 3 & 4 inchs long. very nice looking fish. i ask her how much they are, and she says, "8 dollars". i was like. . .  . i bought them. they've been in my tank for a little over a day now, and seem to be getting along fine with my other fish. my tank is mixed. i have some mbuna, some peacocks and some haps. does anyone know what these fish are, and have any idea if i'm going to have trouble??? i don't even know if these are malawi cichlids or not. the girl didn't have a clue. i'm pretty sure she sold them to me at the wrong price too. at other petstores, the fish i've been buying aren't nearly this big or as colorful, and usually cost $10 to $15.


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## cater20155 (Jun 16, 2008)

Both are peacocks. Im not sure on what the first one is, but the second one is one of the red peacocks, either the Aulonocara (Rubescens) or German Red.


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

If you want to know if there are going to be aggression issues post which mbuna you have and their sizes.
These peacocks should be fine with the Haps but the mbuna are probably too aggressive for them.
Anyway, post the tank dimensions and inhabitants.


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## LeeKai (May 1, 2009)

what happened to the pics?? I cant see them!


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## bigcatsrus (Apr 15, 2009)

snap, gone or missing


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## klc9100 (Apr 14, 2009)

i don't know what happened to the original pics. i borrowed a friends camera last night and i am going to post pics of every fish i have. anytime i have a problem or question, the 1st thing everyone asks for is a stock list. i honestly don't know what most of my fish are. the ones i think i know, i'm probably wrong, lol. if ya'll can help me figure out what all of these are and what sex they are, i can put it in my sig. i know it's important to know all of that, and unfortunately, i just don't. i know you guys/gals are good at this stuff, and any help would be much appreciated. i'm going to include some basic info about each one. maybe it will help. the pics aren't great, but the best i could do with what i had to work with.

here we go:

#1 - silver & black, shows a little yellow at times / no idea what sex / moderately aggressive / 4" long









#2 - i think this is a male red zebra / very aggressive / 3" long









#3 - a friend told me this is a female red shoulder / very easy going / 4" long









#4 - yellow lab / no idea what sex / mildly aggressive / about 3" long









#5 - no idea / pretty laid back / orange, black & white / 4" long









#6 - no idea / bright yellow & blue / this is one of the new ones / very easy going / 4" long









#7 - no idea / dull purple / VERY active / mildly aggressive / 3" long









#8 - no idea / same as #7, but has orange fins / a little more aggressive / about 3" long









#9 - i've been told this is a female kenyi / whatever it is, it's mean as **** / 3" long









#10 - i think this is a female crabro / cool fish, but hides most of the time, whenever it comes out, the other bumblebee cichlid chases it / 3" long









#11 - i think male crabro / same as #10, but about 5" long and mean / sometimes it turns almost completely black









#12 - no idea / kind of a golden yellow color / very active, but not aggressive towards other fish / 3" long









#13 - no idea / this is the other new fish / it's beautiful in person / pretty shy / 4" long









#14 - no idea / looks to be same as #7, but bigger and has dark purple verticle stripes / mildly aggressive / about 4" long









#15 - no idea / dark purple, almost black / very aggressive / bites me when i stick my hand in the tank / 4" long









#16 - another yellow lab, i think / same as #4, but smaller / very mild temprament / smallest fish in tank, but none of the others ever bother it for some reason / don't know sex / 2" long









#17 - i've been told this is called an electric blue / moderately aggressive / don't know sex / about 3" long









#18 - no idea / hides alot / slightly aggressive / 3" long









#20 - no idea / very light purple or blue / black on fins anf tail / mildly aggressive / 3" long









#21 - been told it's a male dragon's blood / very timid / about 3" long









#22 - no idea / very cool looking in person / black with light blue markings on body and orange on fins / pretty mean / 4" long









#23 - no idea / same as #5, but smaller / has purple on fins and tail / mildly aggressive / about 3"









#24 - lol. kind of a group shot. i just included it because i think it looks cool.


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## danielratti (Feb 17, 2008)

How many gallons is your tank cause some of those fish are gunna get huge. The venustus & polystigma will eat the other fish once they get bigger. *** seen polystigma wipe out a whole tank.


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## klc9100 (Apr 14, 2009)

danielratti said:


> How many gallons is your tank cause some of those fish are gunna get huge. The *venustus* & *polystigma* will eat the other fish once they get bigger. I've seen polystigma wipe out a whole tank.


which ones are those??? that's what my purpose of doing this was. i don't know what most of them are.

the tank is 75 gal. a friend of mine has a 180 that i'm going to get in a few months when he upgrades.


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## danielratti (Feb 17, 2008)

the 2 with the camo markings#22 & 18. You will want to choose if you want to do haps and peacocks or mbuna. Mbuna are what the 2 larger haps you have will eat in the wild and in your tank. Also peacocks do not do well with the stress caused by the mbuna. Are also gunna have aggression issues from the males since you are mixing the 2 sexes they will cross and you will end up with hybrids.

Did you also notice that you went from 18 to 20?


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## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

# 2 Red Zebra (Metriaclima estherae). Looks like a female. Males will have a nice blue sheen to their body and fins. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=1730

#4 Yellow Lab (Labidochromis caeruleus). Looks like it could be a male. They tend to have bolder black than females. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=713

#9 Looks like a female Kenyi. Males turn a yellow color. Yeah, they are mean. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=798

#10 and 11 Do look like crabro. They get very mean too. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=845

#15 Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei". Weird that it bites you. Looks like a male. They are one of the most mellow Mbuna. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=1460

#16 looks like a Yellow Lab. Not sure how pure tho.

#18 is probably a venustus. Not sure of Haps and Peacocks tho. But it looks like one to me.

#20 is a Pseudotropheus socolofi. I don't know how to tell sex on these.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=919

Hope that helps.


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## klc9100 (Apr 14, 2009)

danielratti said:


> the 2 with the camo markings#22 & 18. You will want to choose if you want to do haps and peacocks or mbuna. Mbuna are what the 2 larger haps you have will eat in the wild and in your tank. Also peacocks do not do well with the stress caused by the mbuna. Are also gunna have aggression issues from the males since you are mixing the 2 sexes they will cross and you will end up with hybrids.
> 
> Did you also notice that you went from 18 to 20?


no i didn't mean to do that (skip #19). thanks for pointing that out. i'm not going to go back and change it though. it would probably confuse things

thanks for the info. which ones are haps and which ones are mbuna. i think i know which ones are peacocks. if you would like, you can point them out too though. my girlfriend and I got out of control buying fish. we didn't do enough research before hand. we've also found that most of the petstore people we were listening to don't know what they're doing either. i'm just once and for all trying to figure out what's what, and which sex they are, so i can come up with a plan/direction to go in with this tank. i hate to seem stupid, but i'm totally in the dark here.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

yellow lab looks like a hyrbrid


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## klc9100 (Apr 14, 2009)

Dizzcat said:


> # 2 Red Zebra (Metriaclima estherae). Looks like a female. Males will have a nice blue sheen to their body and fins. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=1730
> 
> #4 Yellow Lab (Labidochromis caeruleus). Looks like it could be a male. They tend to have bolder black than females. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=713
> 
> ...


yes, it helps. thank you. this is the kind of help i need. the little bit i thought i knew about cichlids, recently turned out to be wrong. so i'm trying to just start over, as far as a list of what i have. then i need to figure out what's compatable and what's not.


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## danielratti (Feb 17, 2008)

Ok how i sex is i normaly vent its when you catch the fish and look under it at the vent and the anaus. oO is female oo is male here is a link that will show how to http://www.malawimayhem.com/articles_venting.shtml.

Peacocks and haps generally look alike in body shape and face while most mbuna have a more rounded face to it. Haps and peacocks are generally a more brighter color look under the profiles and you will figure it out.

If you are getting a 180 and it was me id stick with doing haps and peacocks. It would be a very good colorful mix of fish there not as active as mbuna but im happy with my 4 hap and peacock tanks.

It also looks like your venestus might be a female due to the fact it has rounded anal and dorsal fins. The rounded and pointed fins are also another way to sex fish the more you read up on to it the more you will figure out.


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## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

> which ones are haps and which ones are mbuna


Well, all the ones I listed except for the venustus are Mbuna. They live in heavy population in Lake Malawi in the rocks (Mbuna means Rock Fish). To keep these you need a lot of rocks for them. Mbuna are very busy all the time and from what I understand peacocks can get pretty stressed from that. I have an all Mbuna tank and have resisted getting any Haps or Peacocks for that reason. If you look at them, Mbuna have more compact bodies and fins and tend to stay smaller than the others. I think (don't quote me) that the largest will be the Bumble Bee at about 7". Mbuna are also strictly vegetarians too. So feeding the Haps and Peacocks a high protein diet can cause your Mbuna to develop bloat.

This is very good at explaining the differences in needs and such:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/compatibility.php

Also, if you go to the profile section and look at pictures of Mbuna, Haps and Peacocks you will start to be able to see the differences. This is what I did and how I can tell when in a store looking. Since I focused on Mbuna I can't really tell the difference in Peacocks and Haps tho. 
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/?region=M

My suggestion is, decide which group you want to keep and build on that. If Mbuna, then look at profiles and try to match aggression levels. They do best in groups, 1 male to 3-4 females. So, if you go with that, I would remove the Bumble Bees and Kenyi and build on the Labs, Red Zebras, Acei and Socolifi. With a big tank you could add another group and up your numbers too. The Bumble Bees and Kenyi will just be very aggressive and will get more so as they mature. Try to avoid fish that look very similar too. Try not to get two different kinds that are blue with stripes for example. The males will fight and there may be cross breading. Also and most important, try VERY hard not to impulse buy! If you see one you like, go home and research it to see if it would work. This advice comes from experience :roll:

Good luck and happy researching! :thumb:


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

i hate it when my boss vents me... wait a minute i am the boss


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## srook23 (Feb 21, 2009)

My acei bites as well. As a matter of fact I have 43 mbuna in my tank and when I stick my arm in to move something he's normally the only fish that will bite.


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## Dizzcat (Aug 26, 2008)

I am so lucky! None of mine bite. Isn't it weird how different they all can be? I have heard of a Kenyi or an Auratus being the sweetest fish of a tank! That is so backwards! The auratus is suppose to be the major aggressor and the Acei the mellowest! :lol:

You know who does bite me, and very often is my Bolivian Ram male! It doesn't hurt, but always surprises me so I jump!  If he did it on a consistent basis it probably wouldn't catch me off guard the way it does. But he only does it once in awhile. I know for sure its coming if he is over eggs or fry.


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## LeeKai (May 1, 2009)

#22 is a nimbochromis fusco...


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## danielratti (Feb 17, 2008)

Thats what i was thinking myself when i looked at it again.


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## aaquale1 (Apr 18, 2009)

#1 Astatotilapia Latifasciata?


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