# "Electric Yellow" turned blue?!



## preschoolcichlid

Hi everyone,

I'm a preschool teacher with a cichlid as one of our classroom pets. When I first bought Boomerang at the beginning of August, s/he was advertised as an Electric Yellow and _was_ actually yellow with some blackish/dark vertical striping. This is the only picture I have from when I first got him/her:










After a couple of weeks, s/he was suddenly light blue (with a little yellow dot on the back bottom fin)!  S/he will get darkish vertical striping during environmental changes or stress due to me having to do water changes. Other than that, the vertical striping is pretty faded. To this day, more than four months later, s/he is light blue. This is the best picture I could get:










Sorry for the awful pictures. Boomerang darts so quickly that I can never get a good shot. Would anyone know what species of cichlid I have and WHY s/he turned color?? Thank you!!


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## nmcichlid-aholic

You have female African cichlid from the mbuna (rock dwelling) group of fish out of Lake Malawi, the scientific name of which is Metriaclima lombardoi. It's common name is Kenyi. This species begins life as a fry that is blue with darker vertical bars and maintains that coloration while juvenile. As they near breeding age, young males will change color to a muted yellow with faded darker bars, then as they become fully mature, the bars fade almost completely and they turn a brighter canary yellow.

Females will stay the same blue with bars that they are when young for their entire life. It is not uncommon, however, for a dominant female to "pretend" to be male by turning herself yellow! As seems to be the case with your girl, when these female Kenyi that are dressed up as males are either removed from the group they dominate, or if another threatening fish is removed they will go back to their normal, relaxed blue coloration. You can learn more about them here - http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=798.

Hope this helps!


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## preschoolcichlid

Thank you, nmcichlid-aholic! That is really fascinating!! I'm not surprised the fish was mislabeled, as I got her from Walmart.  We've also been calling her a "him" all this time so I'm excited to tell my preschoolers that Boomerang is, in fact, a girl!  She has nearly doubled in size in the four months we've had her and I have no idea how old she is, but I assumed she was very young because she was small.

Is there a way to tell rough age by size?


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## nmcichlid-aholic

As stated in the profile, max size for this species is 6". Females tend to be a bit smaller, usually between 4-5", and it will take around 18 months to get that big. Their rate of growth can be affected by many conditions, though, such as water cleanliness, feeding schedule, and tank size. In ideal conditions, you would expect one to be about 2-2.5" in 4 to 6 months, then they will grow more slowly for about a year until they reach full size.


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## inga_g

Wow this looks excactly like 2 of mine, I posted some pictures a week ago and didn't know what I had but was told it was Ps.Saulosi hybrid. Mine was yellow at the beginning (4 still are) but 2 started to turn blue in the last few days.
I hope mine are not Kenyi though since I read they are super agressive


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## nmcichlid-aholic

inga_g said:


> Wow this looks excactly like 2 of mine, I posted some pictures a week ago and didn't know what I had but was told it was Ps.Saulosi hybrid. Mine was yellow at the beginning (4 still are) but 2 started to turn blue in the last few days.
> I hope mine are not Kenyi though since I read they are super agressive


Inga_g, your fish are definitely hybrids that have at least some amount of yellow lab (Labidochromis caeruleus) in them, where as the fish pictured in this post are pure Metriaclima lombardoi. There are differences in markings, head and mouth shape, and body shape if you look closely.


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## inga_g

Hi nmcichlid-aholic, yeah looking closely I see what you mean, it's the turning blue part that got me confused. Didn't think labs turned blue but I'm a noob and starting to learn a bit. These forums are great. Sorry to preschoolcichlid for hyjacking your thread.


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## preschoolcichlid

Haha. Don't worry, it's okay!


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## metricliman

Hang on, the kenyi _start_ out blue as juveniles and _end_ up as yellow fish if they are male...
A female that took on male coloration?


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## GTZ

metricliman said:


> Hang on, the kenyi _start_ out blue as juveniles and _end_ up as yellow fish if they are male...
> A female that took on male coloration?





nmcichlid-aholic said:


> Females will stay the same blue with bars that they are when young for their entire life. It is not uncommon, however, for a dominant female to "pretend" to be male by turning herself yellow! As seems to be the case with your girl


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## 24Tropheus

It is also pos for a young male to colour up yellow then return to blue (eg when there are no other Mbuna to fight/bully.) before turning perminant yellow at 3" or so. Egg spots on the anal are also rairer on females than on males.
I would kind of waite a bit or vent before betting on the sex. :wink:


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## preschoolcichlid

Oh boy!  Well, I guess I will have to wait! Boomerang is roughly 2 1/2" from mouth to tail.


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## jeff12

It looks like some kind of hybrid but also kenyi.


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## Michael_M

I've seen Kenyi that have been colour fed/hormoned so all the juvies have the male yellow colour. Another possibility as to why the colour went from male -> female.


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## 24Tropheus

Michael_M said:


> I've seen Kenyi that have been colour fed/hormoned so all the juvies have the male yellow colour. Another possibility as to why the colour went from male -> female.


I have not seen this in the UK. Who in there right mind would hormone Mbuna? But on second thoughts maybe the quick growth compensates for em all looking male?
But is for sure a possibility I think.

I keep looking but I just seem to miss any particlar sines of hybrid on what I think looks like a normal M.lombardoi. (Apart from the odd colour change)
Anyone care to point em out?

All the best James


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## BC in SK

24Tropheus said:


> vent before betting on the sex. :wink:


+1 
It is well known with the very aggressive mbuna, such as kenyi and auratus that 'male' colorations has probably just as much to do with dominanance/status in the heirarchy of a tank, as it does with actual sex of the fish. Not unusual for sub-dom males to retain juvie/female coloration well into large adult size as well as females taking on male coloration. I'm sure a lot of kenyi and auratus are not sexed accurately.....becuase people assume their coloration is a certainty of their sex!

We don't know the situation this fish is in, nor it's tankmates ect. a female that took on male coloration and resorted back, or a male that is now not dominant enough to have male coloration!


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## preschoolcichlid

S/He is in a tank alone with plants and hiding spots.


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