# acei and kenyi



## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

okay i have 1 yellow lab 1 electric orange and 2 kenyi 4 acei i have one (was told by lfs) female ... light yellow to hint of purple.... the rest male... okay this is the problem one acei DARK purple almost black is OVERLY aggresive... the yellow female is aggresive but not causing fin damage to others.. i rearrange add salt and to no avil the "black acei" HUGE lips by the way on this one.. anyways to no avail still aggressive to the point of putting it in a breeder net.. at work now try for pics tomorrow or tonight.. anything i can do to calm him??


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

What is the "yellow female"? Is this one of the kenyi? If so, it's amale, and depending on what size tank you have him in, may not work out. (I wouldn't recommend keeping them in less than a 75G.)


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

i beleive the paisty yellow may be acei.... lfs said only femail..hmm.. and it is bossy but not untolerable the black fish i assumed was male is the same type.. believe acei but thats the mean one.. and i think 3 orange eggs on anal fin.. help please thanks so much


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

paisty yellow and black (aggressive one) identical looking on flikr they look like acei... is that my problem,, how to resolve


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I'm really having a hard time following you...It would help if you wrote in sentences!

There are no solid yellow acei.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

sorry about my broken english. the acei is not fully yellow a paisty yellow with irredesent purple. the reason i think they are acei is they have the larger mouth and when i looked on flickr i saw a black acei face front only, but it looked like my black/purple really aggressive fish. ill try and get you pics tomorrow or tonight on this post but definetly the paisty yellow and the black purple are the same kind of fish. both are aggresive but the yellow one isnt overly aggressive or hurting my fish, the black one is and at the moment i have him in a breeder net.. please help me


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

There are different variants of acei. You don't want to keep two different variants together for breeding purposes if you plan to distribute fry.

It sounds like you may be describing the blue acei and black acei.

Upload some pics of them to a photo host and then post all of them in the unidentified section. You might also post the dimensions of your tank, so that others will be able to tell you why you're having the aggression issues that you're having.

Leave the black one in the breeder net until you get things worked out. :thumb:


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

thank you so much.. ill try and get pics tonight and put them on flickr


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

terrible cell phone pics but i will give a description









okay this is obama.. what type.. kenyi?? m/f ? not too aggresive justa chaser









this is the problem child.... same body as yellow/purple changing "female below" 3 orange eggs on anal fin easily twice as many stripes and same body style









this is the "female" the owner of left side of my tank aggressive but not as much of a biter same build as black fish different stripes









i also have electric blue

two blood parotts and the electric orange below


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

well i know the first one isnt a kenyi from what i can make out of the pics


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

The first one might be Melanochromis auratus. The pic isn't clear enough to confirm.

#2 may be a peacock...Can't tell for sure!

#3 is NOT a female. It's a male Metriaclima lombardoi or kenyi.

#4 is probably a kenyi hybrid...Too many bars to be pure, unless it's just one of the poor quality ones that are going around.

#5 isn't an "electric orange". It's a Metriaclima estherae. Something looks a bit off with the mouth, but it may be the angle of the pic.

My best advice would be for you to read up on these species a bit. I hope this is a large tank. The auratus and kenyi should not be kept in anything smaller than a 75G, and you might even have trouble with that big of a tank.

What size is the tank?

Not an acei in sight!


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

wow that kinda stinks.. *** got a 55 gallon tank 48*24 and my lfs has given me terrible, terrible information. I kinda want to start my tank over but now i have these wonderfish and i dont know what to do with them. my lfs doesnt take in fish, and they were the "know it alls" who suggested these fish. wow in a hard spot!!!! ANY ideas on how to calm the peacock?? ill send you a reply this weekend with better photos. thanks so much for the help


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## Aura (Oct 29, 2005)

#1 almost looks like a Krib (Pelvicachromis pulcher). The picture is so unclear, but you can look at the profile and compare. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1350


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

wow thanks aura that is the breed, my lil obama (tee hee) is a krib.. thanks so much. But i cant get his colors to look as vivid, when i got him he was almost totally black, and when matured he changed to match the link, but i cant get the beautiful purples on his belly,,, any suggestions?


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## Aura (Oct 29, 2005)

I've seen these fish at the lfs, but I've never kept them, so I can't really help. From looking at the profile, I would guess that the females get that coloring -- maybe she needs to mature more or needs a male around? Is she being harassed by the mbuna in your tank?


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

youve been a huge help.. shes not being harrassed shes usually the one that is nipping. guess its not obama anymore,, maybe shebama. it looks like now i have 1. krib 2. not sure black same build as kenyi, but more stripes(most aggressive) 3. male kenyi (aggresive) 4.female kenyi 5. was told not electric orange even though lfs had it labeled. i also have a yellow lab, not shown, and two blood parrots. thanks so much, any suggestions are appreciated


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## CICHLUDED (Aug 4, 2006)

Iâ€™m sorry butâ€¦

My suggestion would be to take all your fish back to your LFS, and demand your money back, or at least give you store creditâ€¦

Then I suggest you do some research on the fish you want to purchase and make sure they are compatible with each other.

There is lots, and lots of information on this website, and plenty of people here that can help youâ€¦

From what I can tell from your post on this site, it sounds like you are trying to rush things to fast. I would start out from step one. Which is getting your tank setup, and cycledâ€¦ Then go from thereâ€¦

Good luckâ€¦ And welcome to the hobbyâ€¦


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

well.. i have found all the species of my fish but one, and i believe it is a johanni.. overly aggressive. and as far as my tank it has been cycled, and *** dealt with tropical fish for a few years. now that i am building cichlids it looks like all of my fish are going to get along fine, minus the johanni and i am taking him to lfs saturday.. he is in a breeder net until then. thanks for the advice, i do appreciate it. i believe though ill have it under control after the monster johanni is gone. hindsight is always 20/20. i appreciate the responce and if i list the fish i have and sex would you mind sharing some info?? if you want pm or hit my mail up THANKS again


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## kodyboy (Dec 9, 2007)

you have quite the hodge=podge of fish, I would recommend finding a species or two, researching them, then build the tank around them.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

thanks... i didnt realize it was a hodge podge until recently.. i see the err of my ways now, but now i have my babies.. suggestions are appreciated


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Aura said:


> #1 almost looks like a Krib (Pelvicachromis pulcher). The picture is so unclear, but you can look at the profile and compare. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1350


Aura is right...I can see the pic a bit better on my monitor at home. I knew the mouth didn't look right for auratus, but it was so blurry and my work monitor is not good at all!

Actually, I've seen worse messes. I would try to rehome the parrots, the krib, and try to get a better pic of the one I thought might be a peacock so we can try to figure out what it is. If it is a peacock, it will be overly stressed in the tank with this mix.

As for the kenyi, the blue one isn't the best quality (if it's pure at all), so I wouldn't distribute fry from them, should they breed.

Once you clear out the parrot fish and krib, you're going to have to consider your stocking and where you want to go with it. If you're interested in breeding and distributing fry at all, I would start all over with some quality fish. If you just want a colourful tank, I would remove all females and try to pick up some nice looking males of different species, but be careful...You don't want any two males that look similar to each other, or two males of the same species.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

cichlidaholic.. wow glad you replied. Okay I am thinking of losing my kenyi. If I get rid of them can you help me from there. I am taking the kenyi back saturday, and for the peacock it appears to be the exact same build as the kenyi but around 12 stripes, probably gonna take him back as well. In doing so, what should i do to build. acei? more krib? thanks so much for the knowledge youve dropped on me this week

would it be okay with

1. 1x krib.. would like to add more krib
2. 1x lab.. would like to leave and potentially add
3. 1x red zebra.. should/could add
4. 2xs parrot.. anyway to keep if possibly labs, or kribs.?? what about acei.. i LOVE my parrots but if i hafta get rid I will


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I don't think you want kribs spawning in this tank. I've never kept them before but understand that this could be a problem.

If you want to keep the parrot fish, I would forego the red zebras, add more Yellow labs, and a group of acei and call it stocked! You could also add a couple of Synodontis for extra activity and a bristlenose pleco to help with algae control.

The parrot fish just aren't equipped to protect themselves from the more aggressive mbuna, but they might work with those two species. (I actually like parrot fish, too, but it seems we're a minority...)


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