# I thought I had Zebras



## JCsicklidnewbie (Mar 8, 2010)

Hello all

I just found out the orange fish that I thought was a male Zebra is pregnant!!! so yeah I'm really new to this...also the blue fish that I rescued from the LPS in the donor tank I thought was a Blue Zebra apparently isn't a Zebra at all. I made a post under the Lake Malawi section this morning titled Help with my Red Zebra....and one person replied and said that neither of my fishes were Zebra but at least I found out the fish was a girl and pregnant instead of a boy with a tumor.

I never figured out how to post pics on this site so I created a FLICKR page just to show the pictures of the Zebra in question...please look at the Orange fish and the One Lip (the blue fish) and tell me what species that are....I still assume One Lip is a boy and the father of the Orange Fishes babies.

thanks in advance here is my FLICKR link http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

Both fish are hybrids, the blue fish is a bit of a mystery. His lip is a bit deformed. The white fish could be a hybrid of a Metriaclima Estherae x Labidochromis Caeruleus. Is the blue fish the father of the fry?


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

i'd almost guess a mix between a publican, or pyrsonotos, and something light in color like a lab

and they could both be fry from the same hybrid brood, where did you get them?


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## pikayooperdave (Jul 10, 2009)

I agree that the "red" fish is a yellow lab crossed with a red zebra.

The blue fish is certainly a cross. At a guess I would say it could be a metriaclima or pseudotropheus species crossed with a labidochromis, or even something weirder like a labeotropheus trewavasse.


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## electyellowdude (Feb 18, 2010)

almost looks like a strawberry peacock with red zebra. And the blue one looks like a cyno cobue with something else in it.


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## JCsicklidnewbie (Mar 8, 2010)

Wow ok so the red fish I bougth from petco under the label red zebra too funny. One lip is a rescue his lip and face were destroyed by a jag I didn't know what he was but I couldn't leave him at the pet store. I assume he is the mate or the red fish would have been pregnant months ago but we will see...once it hit 2in it began to look like a girl but I was in denial and look at me know! Well the people in the malawi section said not to sell the offspring bc hybrids are like cancer but what am I supposed to do with 20 kids? Man this sounds just like an unplanned human pregnancy too funny.....the rescue fish with one lip that cnt even swim straight has what it takes to make babies.

Thanks again I'm off to work now


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

> Well the people in the malawi section said not to sell the offspring bc hybrids are like cancer but what am I supposed to do with 20 kids? Man this sounds just like an unplanned human pregnancy too funny


Keep them if you want and see how they turn out. I discovered that some of my Labeotropheus OB were hybrids of Labeotropheus and Red Zebra. One of the fish is a male and the two others were female. The male bred with one of my true female Laboetropheus so I have a batch of fry which are hybrids, and one of the true male Labeotropheus bred with the female hybrid, so I got a second batch which were hybrids. Without getting into the hybrid debate, I don't like being inhumane and thats my view on hybrids, there are hybrid fish out there which are readily accepted and sold in stores and personally I don't see the difference. JMHO.

When I have ended up with hybrid fry before I grew them to an inch or so and gave them to my cousin and a friend, they weren't really bothered if the fish were hybrids. If you do give hybrid fish to anyone else you should state before hand that the fish are hybrids.


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