# any pictures of Cynotilapia afra (Nkhata Bay)?



## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

I recently got some fry of Cynotilapia afra (Nkhata Bay) without seeing the parents. There's only one picture under profiles so if anyone has pictures of theirs (young, old, male, female) I would appreciate it if you would post pictures.

Thanks in advance.


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## nick a (Apr 9, 2004)

Female in normal dress









Female in holding colors 









Male









Great fish! HTHs


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Just to verify...

There is also a Nkhata Bay variant that is sold as just plain old Cynotilapia sp. rather than afra, and they look nothing like these guys that nick a has!


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## nick a (Apr 9, 2004)

I'm aware of a C. axelrodi variant from the same location but not a Cynotilapia sp.

So is it Cynotilapia sp. 'Nkhata Bay' that this other variant is sold as?


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

These are the only Cynotilapia that I've heard about that come from Nkhata Bay...

Cyno. afra Nkhata Bay
Cyno. sp. mbamba Nkhata Bay
Cyno. axelrodi Nkhata Bay


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## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

Thank you for posting pictures. My fry don't look much like them but they are very small. I hope they grow to look like them. When should I expect them to look more like adults?

I'll try to post a picture soon.


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

They should start to resemble their adult counterparts by 1" - but I wouldn't expect young males to start developing a blaze until closer to 1.5"-2". Nick a would have a better guess since he actually has them though... :lol:


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I'm sorry, the Mbamba were the ones I was referring to. They are sold frequently around here as just a Cynotilapia sp.! :thumb:


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## nick a (Apr 9, 2004)

I'd forgot about the mbambas!

Took a few shots of fry last night--sorry but my lens doesn't allow me to get really sharp shots of very small/very fast moving :lol: young'uns. Not sure what size yours are, so I took a couple from different tanks with varying age groups.

These are not quite an inch yet and a few months old---ish

















These are in the one to two inch range and are several months older than the others. None so far have shown much of any blaze development yet. These batches are my first go'round with this variant and my impression so far is that they are coloring up a little slower/later than some of the others such as Cobwe/Jalo Reef etc....


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I don't have any pics on hand of the young Mbambas, but I can tell you that they were more of a dull brown at the size of nick a's afras. The Mbambas will also be larger and fuller in the body than the afra will be as adults.

I hope I'm not confusing the situation, but I had a group of Cynotilapia sp. Lion's Cove once that I thought were afra! :lol:

Some LFS mislabel them, as do some breeders, so it's always good to know exactly what you've got.


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## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

I am really starting to wonder what I have. They do look duller than the fry shown. Some have almost pink bodies and some aren't showing stripes. I really need to get some pictures so you can help me sort this out.


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## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

Ok, I have put some pictures on the ID section.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=1210944#1210944

Hopefully someone can tell me what they are.


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

Judging by the body shape - they remind me of the mbamba-type _Cynotilapia_. Especially from this photo:










That steep forehead on such young stock is a dead giveaway.


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## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

They sure will have to go through some color changes to look like any of the Cynotilapia on the profiles. They almost look like albinos in comparison. They will be interesting to watch grow. Maybe then the mystery will be solved.


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## nick a (Apr 9, 2004)

First thing you should do is contact your source and ask for pictures of the parents. Either yours or mine are NOT C. afra Nkhata Bays. Just no way I can see that they could both be.

Looks like Kim may have been right on target and perhaps you got some "Canadian" labeling :lol:

Try your best to give us size measurement--I suck at this myself---but some idea of their size/development will help narrow down the possibilities.

I haven't yet received the other variants of C. mbamba, so all I have are the Mphanga Rocks to compare them with. These are about 2" to 2.5". You can see the males are already showing a fair bit of coloration and even the females show more coloration in the unpaired fins than what I'm seeing in your pics. That could be a size or pic lighting thing tho?










Yours almost remind me more of C. afra Cobwe femmes/subadults but they look to be of a size that at least one male would be showing _some_ colors.......?


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## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

Not sure but I think I've found something on a Danish site as Cynotilapia afra "White Top" Nkhata Bay.
http://malawicarsten.dk/start/default.a ... iCichlider

I can imagine my fry growing to look like this one:
http://malawicarsten.dk/malawilex/viewa ... 18&lang=dk


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

Honestly - your best bet is to contact the person that has the parents, like *Nick a* suggested.

If you can't do that, then I'd wait to get a better identification on them when they are bigger and you have at least one male colored up.

I've been through the hunting-down-an-ID process before (got in some wilds that weren't labeled right). It was a P.I.T.A. to get the correct names since the importer was unavailable for help. To this day, I have not kept a single spawn from since I can't be 100% sure they are a true pair and that they are what I think they are. Definitely try to get ahold of the seller and start there - trying for ID's from sites overseas isn't very reliable. Just like in the U.S., names get messed up and photos don't always show true-to-life colors. That and you don't always know if the fish is fully colored in the photo - or if the photo has been altered.


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## nick a (Apr 9, 2004)

That's so true! It's a real **** shoot trying to reverse ID.


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