# wild caught mbuna from Idaho



## dhaneyart

I found these fish in a high desert spring in Idaho. Other fish in the spring included mozambiques (10"+), convicts (black and pink), guppies, swordtails, comets and one other species I couldn't identify.

I've posted on another forum and been told m. estherae, m. greshakei, m. callainos, c. afra and c. axelrodi. I'm sure the orange ones are 'red zebras'. I'm sure it's quite possible any or all of the fish are hybrids but??

The spring is about 25' x 60' x 3' deep avg. Where the water bubbles into the spring it's almost 90 degrees F. I'm sure the fish have been there many years. Probably 300+ of the africans I have pictured, 100 large mozambiques, 40 convicts. The stream that flows out of the pond has convicts, mozambiques, guppies and swordtails. I didn't seen any yellow or blue fish in the stream. 
The shores of the pond are lined with juvenile yellow fish and grey/blue fish.

The closest town is about 50 miles away and has a population of 26 


























































I also just added a vid on youtube of the tank and fish:





Thanks in advance for any input [/img]


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## Lancerlot

Omg awesome find. Get some pictures of this spring for us lol


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## 007Rick

Crazy... I wonder who left them there!


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## dhaneyart

i had my camera with me but I was having so much fun i forgot all about taking pictures :fish:


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## Matt B.

how did u catch these?....net?....fishing rod?.....that's a great find..... just swimming around in a random spring...............

you should go out there with a camera and videotape yourself catching these bad boys....that would be sweet :thumb:


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## dhaneyart

well I went to the spring with only the intention of catching a male convict because I had a frustrated female convict trying to spawn with all my darker colored koi (in a koi pond). None of the pet shops around here had any males and I knew this spring contained convicts. Once I got there I saw all these flourescent blue and yellow fish all over the place and thought hmmmmm. Couldnt leave w/o some of those. I had a net but the fish were far to smart and fast for that so I had a fishing rod for backup. Just used small piece of worm and a small barbless hook. Many of the fish were not even hooked but just clamped down on the worm so hard I could lift them from the water and after getting them in my hand they'd just open their mouth and the worm and hook popped out. None of the fish seemed put out and I took an AC converter and bubbler for the long ride home. 
I did catch a male pink convict about 4-5" (he's a stud) and he's in the koi pond with the female for the summer. He's prolly 10x bigger than the female but they hit it off and have already spawned.


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## noki

Look like all hybrids. Red Zebras and other barred Zebra type fish in the mix. And maybe something else, a more elongate fish.

If you ever go back make sure to take some pics!


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## Lancerlot

noki said:


> Look like all hybrids. Red Zebras and other barred Zebra type fish in the mix. And maybe something else, a more elongate fish.
> 
> If you ever go back make sure to take some pics!


hybrids or not. They have the most amazing color I've seen in a long time.


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## dhaneyart

here's some more pics
The first three are the tank bosses right, middle and left
the rest are just random


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## noki

You caught all these 3-4" ish fish with a worm on a hook? :lol: :lol: :lol: I would have thought you would have been lucky to catch just one. You must be good.

The 3rd fish looks superficially like C. axelrodi but that is doubtful true. The "Zebras" have funny mouths, look more like a Pseudotropheus mix than just pure Metriaclima.


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## dhaneyart

there are so many fish in there I was using a piece of worm about 1/4" long and the instant it hit the water there would be 20-30 fish swarming for it. The mbuna type are about 90% blue, 9% yellow/orange and 1% beautiful white with blue fins (couldnt catch any of those)


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## dhaneyart

you think I'm telling fish stories???

Unfortunately the spring is about 2 1/2 hours from my house or I'd have already gone back.

I did keep 3 mozambiques that I'm going to take back one of these days and when I go I'll take pictures. Even the stream exiting the spring pond is full of convicts, mozambiques, swordtails, fancy guppies and a fish that looked like a small bronze comet but???

Here's pics of 2 of the mozambiques:


















and here's a video of the mbuna swimming around my koi pond while I was preparing a tank for them:






I'm taking snorkel gear next time I go =D>


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## Fogelhund

The location is Barney Hot Springs. If you check government (USGS) you will find some of these cichlids listed as non-indigenous species for this location.


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## Diaster

Where did you hook them? I am not seeing anywhere that a hook might have gone into the skin gets jet black on almost all fish.


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## dhaneyart

they were all caught with a tiny barbless hook in the mouth. They would basically inhale the bait. The whole process of catching one, removing the hook, and placing them in my collection bucket was about 5 sec.


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## Gibbs

BRANT13 said:


> wosh i had a random stream full of cichlids id be in heaven.


I actually have dreams about it, seriously i do! :fish:


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## BRANT13

lol :lol:


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## bntbrl

I dont doubt it at all. There are springs that I know of that people raise fish in forf the aquarium trade. The hot springs arent hot after a while of traveling from the source. I beleive it.


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## etcbrown

OK, I went to this spring which by the way is literally in the middle of nowhere! It was a 500 mile round trip from Boise and let me tell you if it weren't for the bowhunters out for the beginning of Elk season I wouldn't have seen a soul during the 3 hours I was there.

I saw/caught Tilapia, convicts (no pink ones though), mbuna (appear to by highly hybridized but very, very striking colors) no sightings of the white ones the OP spoke of, just blue, yellow, orange and silver/brown. Also caught a firemouth and saw many guppies and swordtails. In fact the convicts I caught also seem to be hybridized with something else, will study them later.

I should have listened to the original poster. I thought I would be Mr. Smart Guy and I brought my cast net thinking I would clean up.........cichlids are way too fast for a cast net even though the water doesn't exceed much more than 3 feet deep. I did bring a fishing pole and caught a few but my hook was too big so it was very tedious. Also didn't bring worms so had to catch a leopard frog and use pieces of that for bait.

I would estimate the water bubbling up from the ground is only 85 degrees or so. To survive the winter the fish must huddle up close to the entering water because this area gets really, really cold! I would guess 4-6 feet of snow in that area. As the OP said the pond is quite small maybe 80 feet long and 30 to 40 feet wide and around 3-4 feet deep at one end and around 2 feet at the other, exit end.

The habitat could be greatly improved by adding a bunch of boulders and maybe using a backhoe to deepen it up a bit. As is, I would wager that winter kills the majority of the mbuna and the Tilapia keep the surviving fry numbers down. It was cool to see all the Tilapia guarding nests in the sand though.


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