# My Mbunas



## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Here's a couple shots of my current Mbunas.

Chindongo.saulosi

One of my smaller males almost fully coloured up.



















Same male from above, but while he was still transitioning to blue, trying to impress one of my females.



















My dominant male Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala, of my group of 10 F1s.

Pale from being just introduced to the tank.



















Dominant male coloured up, and cleaning out some barnacles.



















Short video of my dominant Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala cleaning out a barnacle cluster.


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http://instagr.am/p/BUUtUdLjxAU/


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Interesting. My son has a tank with saulosi and Linganjala as well. They are the nicest of any of the elongatus types that I've seen, or kept.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Saulosi has a fat belly and elongatus has a skinny one...feed that boy up! He looks good though.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

Very nice cichlids.


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## mrlilfish90 (Apr 1, 2015)

Great pics! Question tho that maybe u can help me with. The yellow female and dominant blue black barred male fish look like my fish I've known as psuedotropheus saulosi.

Also the purple and dark barred fish with the yellow tipped fins looks like my elongatus chewere.

I know there's many similar looking fish, and the names can get kinda screwy sometimes, I'm just wondering if they are the same or just similar fish? I've had trouble locating other elongatus chewere.

I was wanting to share about my tank and don't want to steal your thread, but I can post some pics of my fish. Prolly do my own post tho

I don't have any serious aggression problems between the two fish species yet. They're really not that similar looking but I was afraid of the dark barring causing some confusion. Keeping fingers crossed that they all stay in line. Great fish!


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## Vandruis (May 1, 2017)

Pseudotropheus Saulosi IS Chindongo Saulosi. Taxonomists regrouped a lot of the Ps. group into Chindongo.

Here's a transcript from one of the articles published on it.



> Lake Malaŵi is known for its endemic haplochromine species flock, most notably the rock-dwelling cichlids known as mbuna. The group of mbuna referred to as the Pseudotropheus elongatus species group is currently comprised of Metriaclima spp., Tropheops spp., Cynotilapia spp., and Pseudotropheus spp. In this study, Chindongo, a new genus with the type species C. bellicosus, is described for additional species in this group. Chindongo is distinguished from other mbuna genera by 1) the presence of bicuspid teeth in the anterior portion of the outer row of both upper and lower jaw; 2) a moderately to steeply sloped vomer with a narrow rostral tip which makes an angle of between 53° and 68° with the parasphenoid; 3) a small mouth with the lower jaw slightly shorter than the upper; 4) a broad anterior dentigerous area on both premaxilla and dentary with three or more rows of teeth (usually 5-6 rows); 5) a flank melanin pattern consisting of vertical bars without horizontal elements at any stage of development. Chindongo bellicosus is distinguished by its color pattern and shallower body from the other species which we have transferred to Chindongo. We also describe six new elongate mbuna species and place them into three available genera, they include: Metriaclima flavicauda, M. usisyae, Tropheops kumwera, T. biriwera, T. kamtambo, and Cynotilapia chilundu.


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## mrlilfish90 (Apr 1, 2015)

That's awesome where can I find more articles like these?


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## mrlilfish90 (Apr 1, 2015)

Chindongo saulosi dom.



And elongatus chewere dom.


Sorry about the quality. My camera usually takes great pics


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

DJRansome said:


> Saulosi has a fat belly and elongatus has a skinny one...feed that boy up! He looks good though.


The saulosi pictures were taken recently, where as the elongatus Linganjala pictures were taken the first morning after I received them. 
All both the saulosi and elongatus Linganjala groups are fattend up now. I'll get some more recent pictures of the elongatus Linganjala soon :thumb:


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Fogelhund said:


> Interesting. My son has a tank with saulosi and Linganjala as well. They are the nicest of any of the elongatus types that I've seen, or kept.


The Linganjala are definitely very nice, but I ended getting them because I couldn't get Mpanga/Mphanga haha.
Definitely love my current F1 Linganjala group though, very stunning when the males colour up :thumb:

I personally think Chindongo.elongatus masimbwe & elongatus gold bar Chizumulu are the best looking/most vibrant elongatus variants.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

noki said:


> Very nice cichlids.


Thank you! :thumb:


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

mrlilfish90 said:


> Great pics! Question tho that maybe u can help me with. The yellow female and dominant blue black barred male fish look like my fish I've known as psuedotropheus saulosi.
> 
> Also the purple and dark barred fish with the yellow tipped fins looks like my elongatus chewere.
> 
> ...


No worries. As mentioned above by Vandruis, several groups of Mbuna have been reclassified to Chindongo.
elongatus Chewere and elongatus Linganjala are two separate species, with Linganjala being closer to Mpanga/Mphanga I believe.

The ideal pattern a elongatus Chewere should have is a solid black body, black fins with yellow towards the ends, and evenly shaped and spaced blue diamond patterns along the flanks of the fish.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Some of my mbunas from last year.

Kenyi breeding trio

























Hongi male









F1 Labidochromis Sp. yellow top Mbamba breeder male 









Dominant male Cynotilapia.zebroides Jalo reef fry 1"


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

More of my mbunas from last year

Dominant male Pseudotropheus.acei Msuli 

















F1 male Chindongo.elongatus Chailosi Chitande male of my breeding group of 4 (1 male 3 females)

































Dominant female of my F1 Chailosi breeding group (holding 3 day old developing eggs in these 2 pictures)


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

My F1 Metriaclima.hajomaylandi Pombo rock breeding pair from last year.










































Male and female together, and female holding eggs from the previous night when they bred (little white specks on the female's sides wasn't ich, it's abrasions marks on her slime coat from the male giving love bites.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Even more of my mbunas from last year.

F1 Metriaclima Sp. gold zebra Kawanga males 

































Colour transition of my male Metriaclima Sp. Msobo Magunga male 

































































My dominant female Metriaclima Sp. Msobo Magunga


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## ha77 (Dec 8, 2016)

Very nice. Really like the Mbamba!


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

ha77 said:


> Very nice. Really like the Mbamba!


Thanks, he was definitely a stunner. Produced some really nice offspring with him as my breeder male.

Really like the Cynotilapia.aurifrons Mphanga in your display by the way! :thumb: 
Been trying to track down a group my self, but haven't had any luck so far. Did you get yours from Larry Johnson by any chance?


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## Austinite (Jul 27, 2013)

What stunning fish! I'm cycling my tank right now (we moved & I've had to start all over)....can't hardly wait to stock my tank!


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Some more updates of my new group of Chindongo.saulosi, and group of 10 F1 Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala.

Subdominant Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala male flaring, and protecting his cave from my dominant male (in the background).









Subdominant Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala male in his neutral state (top picture).
Flashing his colours to lure a female (left corner) to his cave (bottom picture).









One of my larger subdominant Chindongo.saulosi males.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Definitely hard to get a clear shot of this guy.
This male Chindongo.saulosi is always on the move, either putting on a dance for my females or snatching food during feedings.









Got a little dancing going on between these two Chindongo.saulosi


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## ha77 (Dec 8, 2016)

Ram-Finatic said:


> ha77 said:
> 
> 
> > Very nice. Really like the Mbamba!
> ...


Haha yea I know you have. I'm the same guy from facebook. I will still definitely let you know when they have grown out. :thumb:


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

Do you still have the zebra Gold? Regular or OB females?

Those Linganjala, probably the nicest out of any of the elongatus types available. Amazing fish when dominant.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

ha77 said:


> Ram-Finatic said:
> 
> 
> > ha77 said:
> ...


Cool, and I definitely appreciate it! :thumb:



Fogelhund said:


> Do you still have the zebra Gold? Regular or OB females?
> 
> Those Linganjala, probably the nicest out of any of the elongatus types available. Amazing fish when dominant.


Unfortunately not anymore. I had an individual buy my entire group back in March.
Will try to get some more later this year.

In regards to the Linganjala, I definitely agree! I was originally looking for some elongatus Mphanga, but with this group of Linganjala I'm not complaining  
Already got some courting action going on as well, and hopefully I'll be able to get some fry from them soon. I'll let you know when I have some available, if you'd be interested.

Will be trying to get some elongatus Masimbwe, as well as elongatus Mbenji blue down the road. Definitely looking forward to working with those species!


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Subdominant F1 Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala male has become the new dominant in the tank.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Just picked up an absolutely gorgeous trio of F1 Pseudotropheus.elongatus Chailosi Chitande. 
Really looking forward to be working with this species again! This bunch is even better than my previous F1 breeding group! The male of this group was absolutely lit up at the store, and I can't wait until he adjusts to my tank  
The male was already trying to court the females, while I was floating the bag haha 8)


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## morrismorris (Mar 21, 2017)

Ram-Finatic said:


> Subdominant F1 Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala male has become the new dominant in the tank.


Stunning fish. After only 6 days of my new tank and having one of these in there with 16 other fish, I had to return him to the fish store today. He was just way too aggressive and I just knew the day would come where I'd arrive home from work one day with only him staring at me from the glass. I hope you get to enjoy him though because they really are beautiful.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

morrismorris said:


> Stunning fish. After only 6 days of my new tank and having one of these in there with 16 other fish, I had to return him to the fish store today. He was just way too aggressive and I just knew the day would come where I'd arrive home from work one day with only him staring at me from the glass. I hope you get to enjoy him though because they really are beautiful.


Oh man, that's really unfortunate. Always sucks when you need to return a fish because it ends up being an a**hole to everything else in the tank (especially one as stunning as a Linganjala).
Hopefully the aggression levels with my group stay at a minimum. I got about 5 other Linganjala males in my group of 10, so the dominant male should have his hands full.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

My smallest Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala male coloured up for the first time.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Just caught a few videos of my Chindongo.saulosi breeding!  
In part.2 you can see the eggs right before the female scoops them up.

Chindongo.saulosi breeding part.1


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http://instagr.am/p/BVVx3xWD0A7/

Chindongo.saulosi breeding 
Part.2


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http://instagr.am/p/BVVyMizjW9i/

Chindongo.saulosi breeding 
Part.3


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http://instagr.am/p/BVVy1YeDED5/


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Turns out I have 2 breeding pairs of Chindongo.saulosi in my tank lol! Both females holding, with female on top holding a larger batch of eggs 

Pair #1 - male and female in the 2 top pictures

Pair #2 - male and female in the 2 bottom pictures


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Chindongo.saulosi breeding pair No.1
Female gathering more sperm from her male 


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http://instagr.am/p/BVWA6A7jGpq/


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Update on some of my mbuna:

2 more weeks before I move my Chindongo.saulosi females in their releasing/nursery tank. Here's hoping the 2 females drop me a decent number of fry  









Short video of my 2 hold females 

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http://instagr.am/p/BVlQG21DzAn/

Update on my dominant F1 Pseudotropheus.elongatus Chailosi Chitande male. The Chailosi group has settled in, and their colours are beginning to show. Can't wait to see this male is breeding mode, and see that blue colouration really intensify :thumb:


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Some more updates.

Might have to move my Chindongo.saulosi females into their nursery tank sooner than I expected. 









Short video of my Chindongo.saulosi females. If you look carefully you can see the Chindongo.saulosi fry inside the mouths of both females.

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http://instagr.am/p/BVsWw7wDYJu/

One of my smaller F1 Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala males coloured up.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

My F1 Pseudotropheus.elongatus Chailosi Chitande male. Getting more colourful with each passing day  









Quick screen shot from a video I was trying to record of my Chailosi Chitande male grazing on algae. Really like how the lighting reflected off this guy, and gave him a pastel colour tone.









Originally thought this F1 specimen was a subdominant male, but it turns out to be really colourful Pseudotropheus.elongatus Chailosi Chitande female. Definitely will try to pair off this female to my male.


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## Ram-Finatic (Jul 27, 2016)

Subdominant Chindongo.saulosi male









Dominant F1 Pseudotropheus.elongatus Linganjala male


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