# mainganos VS johannis,are they the same fish?



## joker4466 (Oct 10, 2008)

are mainganos and johannis the same fish just from different locations or the guy that discovered them?
are all female johanni a different color than the males,like orange/yellow or just some locations?


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

There are three fish that are often confused, which has resulted in a lot of hybridization. Those species are _Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos_ (aka Maingano. aka electric blue johanni, aka EBJ), _M. johannii_, and _M. interruptus_.

_M. cyaneorhabdos_ has blue males and blue females with fairly clean stripes running the length of the fish.

_M. johannii_ start out yellow, but the males turn blue and look much like _M. cyaneorhabdos_ males.

_M. interruptus_ starts out yellow, with the males turning blue just like M. johannii. However, these males have more of a checkerboard pattern with both vertical and horizontal lines that tend to be much more broken than the lines seen in the other two species.

Short answer, the two fish you asked about are currently classified as two separate species.


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## joker4466 (Oct 10, 2008)

so electric blue johanni is just a trade and another name for Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos ''mainganos''?just to be clear,lol


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

joker4466 said:


> so electric blue johanni is just a trade and another name for Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos ''mainganos''?just to be clear,lol


It "should" be. The problem being, the name is also used in err by some stores, for johanni, and for some hybrids. If you go looking, ensure that the fish that you see are a nice blue, with good horizontal bars. If they are broken up much, or the fish are too light, don't get them.

Here is a post of what they should look like.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... p?t=188477

These fish are 4-5 weeks old, probably not even 1/2" yet.


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## joker4466 (Oct 10, 2008)

somebody had a post where they say there wc or f1 mainganos (i forget)have yellow in the outline of there fins but they lose it when they get bigger.
is that true?i have seen mainganos fry and they had no yellow at all.thx
the imput is helpful


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

They should have no yellow at all. Refer to the picture on the post I linked to.


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## joker4466 (Oct 10, 2008)

thx then i think i was sold something other than a mainganos
ths for all the replys


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## joker4466 (Oct 10, 2008)

Fogelhund said:


> They should have no yellow at all. Refer to the picture on the post I linked to.


theres a guy in my area that says he has wc mainganos and that one female produces fry with a bit of yellow in the fins but it goes away as it grows.
heres a link the guy sent me that helped.
http://www.malawicarsten.dk/malawilex/v ... asp?id=779
but basically i wanted to know if ''electric blue johanni '' was another pet trade name for mainganos.i basically think they are


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

joker4466 said:


> Fogelhund said:
> 
> 
> > but basically i wanted to know if ''electric blue johanni '' was another pet trade name for mainganos.i basically think they are


It is a pet trade name, as is maingano. Just be cautious, as the trade name is used in err for other fish too.


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

joker4466 said:


> ...but basically i wanted to know if ''electric blue johanni '' was another pet trade name for mainganos.i basically think they are


It should be, but as already pointed out there are those that misuse this name. In fact, the name itself is misleading because this is not a johannii. This is all part of why there is so much confusion with these species, and why there are fish that are either mislabeled or hybridized.

I am not aware of any variant of _M. cyaneorhabdos_ having any yellow. We would have to see some documentation from Konings or DeMason, some what in the know.


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