# maingano or johanni



## sweetsummerrose (Mar 11, 2008)

Hello everybody! If I could get help with 2 questions or problems, it would be greatly appreciated, start with the easier one  I recently got a fairly new decent sized bristlenose pleco (few weeks ago ), we have 4 bristlenoses and they all do awesome, besides this one, he has been hiding basicly since I got him, almost in the same spot; so Im assuming hes hiding for a reason,(some of my fish are a little bigger ) so should I just let it be, or should I take away his hiding spot so he does something- the algae is starting to drive me crazy!! (thanks!!)
Other problem, over a year ago, I bought what I thought was 2 male johannis, I recently divided my females from my males so I have a female and what I thought was a male tank, and long behold I just noticed my what I thought male johanni is holding- Im assuming I must have possibly 2 mainganos, here are 2 pictures, one still looks johanni, but I guess I dont know anymore, any help would be awesome!!!
















The one that is holding now, is the one in the 2nd picture on the bottom left


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## teqvet (Mar 24, 2008)

Only 2 pics showed up; I'm assuming there were others?


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## sweetsummerrose (Mar 11, 2008)

No sorry my camera has dead batteries right now, so I only posted 2 older pictures.


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## drummerguydw (Mar 28, 2008)

well accirding to the cichlid profiles the female johanni are orange so it is probably a mainganos. But from what *** seen both look very similar


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## cerissa (Mar 18, 2008)

drummerguydw said:


> well accirding to the cichlid profiles the female johanni are orange so it is probably a mainganos. But from what I've seen both look very similar


This got me to thinking..would anyone know if the Mainganos Female interbreed with the Johanni Male? They both do look very similar....


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## sweetsummerrose (Mar 11, 2008)

Thank you, thats kinda what I was wondering also, if my fish holding, which I know is a maingano, (now!!!)but if the other on the first picture, looks maingano, or johanni, they do look so similar, I cannot quite tell the difference.


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## xclub (Apr 15, 2008)

@cerissa: it is possible, but I have 6 of each in one tank and I never had this kind of crossing

@sweetsummerrose: 100% Melanochromis Maingano


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## sweetsummerrose (Mar 11, 2008)

Thank you all for your responses, can someone tell me the differences between a male johanni and maingan, if any, ( i still cant believe this happened, I thought I was done with breeding and babies for awhile!!!)


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## eagl97 (Dec 26, 2006)

My LFS has their tank labeled maingano johanni but they're maingano because there aren't any orange fish in the tank and they to young to be in color yet.

some female maingano have a lighter colored stomach like yours does and Johanni females are orange


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## Joea (May 25, 2004)

_Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos_ (Mangaino and also sold as Electric Blue Johanni) and _Melanochromis johannii_ are two of the most commonly mislabeled, mismatched and misidentified species of mbuna.

All _M. johannii_ are orange-yellow when juveniles and only males turn blue as they mature. All _M. cyaneorhabdos_ are blue from birth and remain that way. There are subtle differences between a male _M. johannii_ and _M. cyaneorhabdos_ but it can be very difficult to distinguish between the two.

There's no way to unequivocally claim that that fish is 100% _M. cyaneorhabdos_ based on that picture. However, if the fish in that picture was indeed holding, it's a female and possibly a _M. cyaneorhabdos_. I say "possibly" because of the questionable knowledge of this fishes lineage. There's rampant hybridization between these two species in the hobby. A third species, _M. interruptus_, can also be added into this equation. If your source is unsure, or are mislabeling these fish, their purity should remain suspect.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I'm seeing some vertical bars showing up between the middle and lower horizontal stripes...Common for johanni, but usually the mangaino has a clean light blue stripe between those two dark blue horizontal stripes.

If you've got both blue males and females, I wouldn't distribute any of the fry. IMO, it looks like there was some crossbreeding back in the lineage somewhere along the line.

Kim


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## sweetsummerrose (Mar 11, 2008)

Thank you all again for your responses, all appreciated. Due to a little aggression and too much breeding is why I had decided to split up my males and females, so sad to say, the fry has become a challenge(snack) for my fish, and for my husbands CA. I have seen over 10 little babies hiding in my all female tank,(socolofi hybrids) one auratus still holding(going on 26-28 days) and now my maingano (just moved). I was ready to put an end to all the breeding!!! :fish:


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