# New to Africans, confirm ID and help



## musica123 (Jan 27, 2012)

I've had these guys since this week but finally got around to posting. Long story short, through circumstances i hardly had any control over, by brother brought home some fish from an acquaintance for me to raise (he knows close to zip about the hobby). I wasn't complaining at the time (who doesn't love free fish )...and then i came home and saw that they were africans :? . I think here's where i should say that i have experience with CA/SA cichlids but have ZERO ideas/experience about Africans so forgive me for any ignorance i might have.

My research has lead me to believe that these guys are "pundamilia nyererei" but the pics i see online look slightly different from these guys. i also found out that there were different variations. so my question:

1) are these guys truly "pundamilia nyererei" and what variation? (or are they hybrids?)....also, do they have a common name

2) how do i sex these guys? obviously i can tell who the dominant male is but what about the others? Im more worried that i might not have enough females.

This is the lot of them (they range from 1.5-3")



dominant male (usually a bit more vibrant) 



2nd largest (was hoping this one was female but saw it once fight with dominant male and swear i saw it almost color up like him..normally doesn't have the bars....are they stress bars or is this an emerging male?)




3rd largest (the one in the far back)



other than that, can someone tell me about or link me to the "african 101" (stuff that 'everyone' in the African cichlid hobby should know about and also compatibility)


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

I don't know what species/variety they are, but they are very over fed, which for africans can be lethal. They will always act hungry (unless ill or holding), they will eat as much and as often as you feed them. Most people feed them 1-2 times a day and often skip a day each week to make sure they don't over eat, personally I feed my tanks 2 light meals a day i.e. just enough food so everyone gets some, but no pellet hits the sand, and usually skip 2-3 of those feedings a week.

Check the library tab for info.


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## musica123 (Jan 27, 2012)

wow, thanks for the input. i guess i'll cut down on the feeding....and even though i 've been jumbling through the forums for a while now, *** always blurred out the links at the top...never did notice that we have a library lol. that was quite the face palm moment for myself


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## 4RSo (Aug 13, 2011)

I'm not sure but the male looks like a Ruti Island to me. I'm not sure though.


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## Chester B (Dec 28, 2012)

Pundamilia nyererei for sure, but I think they look more like "makobe island" variant. I'm sure Samaki will see this thread soon enough and bring his expertise to the table.


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi They look like pundamilia nyererei, yu have at least a male and there seem to have some females in the lot,I can't be 100% sure about the variant it might be as two seem very close in appearance(Makobe ilsand population and juma island population) so this might be one of the two. Ask yur brother to get the info as this is important when keeping african cichlids. Pundamilia nyererei is a rock dwelling species living in the offshore part of the rocky reefs, it eats predominantly insect larvaes and zooplancton. The male keep a territory while the females live in schools of hundreds of them. They are harem brooders, the females keep the fry in holes close to the territory of the dominant male.  
xris


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## musica123 (Jan 27, 2012)

update:
the dominant male breed with one of the females. It happened after i did a water change and moved the deco around. im quite excited  ...didn't think this would happen so soon.

I think it might've been impulsive of me but i moved her to a 10 gal after 1 day on holding in the main tank...she kept getting harassed by most of them and after watching it repeat for all of Sunday, i couldn't take it any more and risked removing her today (i've read that some females spit out the eggs if captured and not holding for long). Thankfully, she seems to be taking it relatively well in the new tank.


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