# Help ID this beautiful African Cichlid



## LoveAllCichlids (Apr 3, 2021)

Hello, I've been a long time lurker here. Never had any cichlid tank, but I finally cycled my tank last week and stocked it with some well known species such as Yellow Lab, Red Zebra, Acei, Domasoni and a few is these little guys. I'd like help in identifying it so I don't cross contaminate/breed hybrids. I'm a true believer in keeping the original species. Yes, I messed up by mixing the Red Zebra and Yellow Labs, but they aren't breeding age yet and I'm going to buy another 75 gallon tank to separate them from the Yellow labs. Although some well known YouTube fish channels have had success putting yellow and red zebras together and not having any of them cross breed, I don't want to risk that. Anyways here are some pictures of the fish I need help identifying. I looked at our entire database of Mbuna and about 1/4 of the Haps database, but my eyes were getting too blurry so I decided ro ask for help here. (My light is a white LED with a tiny blue and red light mixed in). Super bright lights at almost 2,500+ lumens.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I will let others ID your fish, thinking peacock. Does not belong with the mbuna.

Yellow labs and demasoni can spawn at 1.5 inches so you may want to buy that 75G yesterday.


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## LoveAllCichlids (Apr 3, 2021)

DJRansome said:


> I will let others ID your fish, thinking peacock. Does not belong with the mbuna.
> 
> Yellow labs and demasoni can spawn at 1.5 inches so you may want to buy that 75G yesterday.


Yellow labs will cross breed? I never knew that. Thanks for the info.


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## LoveAllCichlids (Apr 3, 2021)

Here's a better picture. Large eyes lead me to believe it's part of the Peacock family.


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## LoveAllCichlids (Apr 3, 2021)

Scientific Name: Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri" (Chipoka) ? This is the closest fish I could find in this forum cichlid profile.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

The fish is a Yellow Aulonocara "Peacock", either Aulonocara baenschi or Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri" or a mix of similar fish. It is impossible to know what they sell exactly, but unless hormoned seems like a nice fish. Only males show color normally.

Most Malawi cichlids can hybridize in captivity, just don't save unknown fry. Having males and females of both sexes of each species minimizes mixing. The problem with Yellow Labs and Red Zebras is just that so many of the fish are hybrid mixes in the first place, and Red Zebras males are much more dominant they can steal the females. The solid bright Yellow Mbuna in the second pic seems to be a hybrid already, that is not a pure Yellow Lab.


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## LoveAllCichlids (Apr 3, 2021)

noki said:


> The solid bright Yellow Mbuna in the second pic seems to be a hybrid already, that is not a pure Yellow Lab.


I believe my camera coloring and the fact that my light has blue/red with white (can't turn it off) it made it look yellow. It's actually one of the red zebras (Orange). Maybe a hybrid red zebra?


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## Haplochromine guy (Jun 4, 2020)

Personally, I think it's the Yellow Sunshine or Aulonocara Baenschi.


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## LoveAllCichlids (Apr 3, 2021)

Haplochromine guy said:


> Personally, I think it's the Yellow Sunshine or Aulonocara Baenschi.


A few people have suggested I wait until they get a little older before trying to see what breed they are. They may end up being a hybrid/mutt. But since they are so small now (less than 1.5 inches), it's hard to see any color. But it does look similar to the Aulonocara Baenschi pre-adult picture on this forum.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

LoveAllCichlids said:


> Haplochromine guy said:
> 
> 
> > Personally, I think it's the Yellow Sunshine or Aulonocara Baenschi.
> ...


He is just about like an Aulonocara baeschi, you can consider him to be almost like a Baenschi, yellow head and fins and light blue body. No crazy hybrid. The problem is that they commonly mix them with closely related "Stuartgranti Maleri" types, often intentionally, they just sell them as a Yellow Peacock, so you can only guess.


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