# Acei - Ngara or Itungi?



## aconite (Aug 9, 2019)

Hi,

My acei have a fair bit of yellow in their tails. I was wondering if anyone is able to identify what they are? Ngara, Itungi, or some sort of hybrid. The females all have a yellowish tint in their tails, but no visible bright blue markings like the male - they're a uniform black/dark blue.

Cheers


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

That male is cool looking, but I would think he must be a hybrid. The markings, the dorsal, the face look wrong, could be many different mixes of Mbuna


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## aconite (Aug 9, 2019)

Thanks, noki. The reason I thought he may be Itungi was because he looks similar to, but not as impressive as, this one that was marked as Itungi:










Anyone else every seen an acei like this?


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

I'll take that back, he does look similar. Seems unlikely that they would sell Itungi unmarked. Maybe someone mixed the two races?


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## aconite (Aug 9, 2019)

The LFS I originally got these from just had them labelled as "white tailed acei". They've only ever had a small selection when I've been there - usually 3 or so types out of labs, red zebras, callainos, acei, auratus. The guy there said they get in whatever their supplier has, so perhaps these came as white tails or there was some miscommunication with the supplier. When I bought them as juveniles there was a subtle yellow tint in the tails, but no other markings on top of the base colour.

I'm not unhappy that he's coloured up like this as he's grown. He's still pretty young, so I'm hoping he continues to do so as he ages. Personally, I think the Itungi looks a lot more interesting than the Ngara, so consider myself lucky here!


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## Haplochromine guy (Jun 4, 2020)

They do not look like acei at all. Hybrids would be my first guess or some unidentified Mbuna.


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