# P. greshakei?



## ladynana (Mar 16, 2012)

First off, glad to be back with cichlids in the house....was getting boring not having any tanks, but my son was always putting stuff in them, aka remotes, toys, shoes, etc, that I had to stay away from tanks for a while  I used to be on this forum a while back, but can't remember my username or password so created a new one 

Now for my question this guy was sold to me as dogtooth cichlid, but I'm thinking more on the line of Red Top Ice Blue...aka pseudotropheus greshakei, the dominant male in the tank at my LFS had orange dorsal fin and tail, but he was way bigger and such a bully that I didn't want to chance him with my 2 inch Red Zebra's so chose the smaller guy. What do you think?

He is currently residing in a 30 gallon with 4 juvenile Red Zebra's 2 inch is the largest atm, and I'll eventually cull out the secondary males to keep 1 male and at least 1 female (hopefully there are at least 2) and a 2.5 inch Spotted Raphael Catfish and as soon as I can find one of a decent size, a pleco (all the ones at my LFS are either under an inch or over a foot ) Am hoping to get a larger tank later but since they are all juveniles they are doing fine for now


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## ladynana (Mar 16, 2012)




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## derrick (Feb 5, 2012)

Can't see the pic use photo bucket it's better


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## ladynana (Mar 16, 2012)

[/img]http://s1151.photobucket.com/albums/o629/ladynana84/?action=view&current=IMG_1535.jpg


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)




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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

No. Maybe a poor quality Cobalt Zebra.


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

That fish is neither greshekei nor "dogtooth cichlid. He looks like pictures I've seen of blue male m. estherae, but they're an uncommon fish.


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## ladynana (Mar 16, 2012)

remember that the dominant male at the LFS had orange dorsal and half his tail was also orange...he is only about 2 inches right now so quite young...might be hard to tell till he grows a bit


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Surely its no red top. Simple Metriaclima zebra (no variant info) would be my guess. Unless there are loads of barred Metriaclima callainos about in your area.

I have bred Ice blue red tops now Metriaclima greshakei and I can assure you if that it would have yellow or orange in the dorsal from about 1/2"+ dom or sub dom.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

It looks very much like a greshakei, minus the orange dorsal and tail.
At 2 inches I would expect at least a little color.


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## ladynana (Mar 16, 2012)

I'm taking another good look at him tonight swimming around my dominant red zebra (metriaclima esterae) (he keeps his colors pales around him) and honestly they do have the exact same body shape and all of their fins are the pretty much the same as well....could he really be a natural version of the male red zebra's?!? He's also hanging around a lot in one corner with one of my 'yet to be sexed' smaller red zebra's (female?!?) and while he's with her(?) his colors show more...I don't want hybrid spawn, but he's adapted well to my tank and he's kinda cool....ugh, who knows with my LFS he could be a hybrid himself


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

I've never seen blue estherae for sale anywhere, so I'd be surprised if you had one and didn't know it. He's more likely a callainos cross.


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## ladynana (Mar 16, 2012)

I'm waiting for him to color up a bit to take another pic (last pic as you can see he's still floating in bag) now he's been in the tank for close to a week, and settling in....full color he gets a full coat of pearly blue on him and he just 'shines' in the tank


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

A greshakei always has a reddish dorsal, even without color. Reddish brown in a female, reddish orange with as male. This fish shows no sign of a reddish dorsal. It is not going to "color up" to a reddish dorsal. A non colored up Greshakei is not light blue.

Blue Estherae are rather rare, and they have more of color change, from almost blue grey to almost white. Estherae tend to have a lot of eggspots, more than Callianos on average.

Callianos, the Cobalt Zebra is very very very common. If you see a blue Zebra in a mixed tank, it is almost always Callainos. They have them at the grocery store. Callianos are always blue, males color up shiny light blue.

All Zebra types look similar in shape....er, they are all related to each other.

Really, it looks like a Cobalt Zebra. The faint barring is considered undesirable.


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## mike1234 (Feb 16, 2010)

Noki is definately correct. When I saw that fish I thought cobalt blue. They're common and in my experience a little meaner than the red or red top variants. It will always be a uniformly light blue fish, and will never gain any orange on the fins. If it breeds with a red female, the babies will never be pretty. Most looked like a muddied blue.. (brown)

Yours depending on size can be female (few egg spots) or a subdominant male.


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## ladynana (Mar 16, 2012)

so the cobalt NEVER has orange?!? this guy goes from completely white, to a vibrant blue with the stripes showing very clearly, with a 'layer' of powdery blue that shines over it, but it definitely has an orange stripe where his dorsal fin meets the body and it's growing and getting bolder...will try to get good pic tomorrow....he's very confusing ....and I'd say definitely male, the way he tries to 'challenge' my dominant male red zebra all the time...he's sub-dominant for sure, but he still tries


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## mike1234 (Feb 16, 2010)

A better pic would help. A nice cobalt wouldn't have any stripe, while a red top variant has a very defined orange stripe on the top of the dorsal.


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## sunkiss (Jul 13, 2012)

Its definately a blue cobalt, or even a cross if there's some orange. I purchased one not long ago, next minute I caught my red top female and my cobalt breeding, as much as I didn't want them too, it was too late. so be interesting to see what the babies will look like as they are a bit bigger.


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