# What do I have???



## DesertSparky57 (Oct 17, 2013)

What do you think these are???

Small one. Maybe 2-2.5". I always assumed female. Others I had like this one were seen holding eggs several times. Placid swimmers, just poke around the tank mostly. 









Transitional male(?) I have 2 like this now. One is slightly more towards the yellow end of things than the other. I had 5 or 6 like this, now 2 remain. They were especially feisty towards one another and I believe were the main cause of attrition in my tank, stressing all the other fish. These are about 2.5-3". 









Big male. This is 'Meany'. He has bullied at least 4 females and 2 males to death. Flaring and flexing, then shimmy shimmy is his specialty. He is not too particular about territory though. He is approximately 4". 








I tried to fix the focus, but maybe altered the color accidentally. Some focus improvement so I'll post it anyway. 









I got a group of 14 of these all at once roughly 4 years ago. The above descriptions make it sound like my tank was a vicious killing field. It had its moments over four years, but for the most part these fish weren't too bad. I just hated seeing my impressive and active tank of a community dwindle down to 4. They all started bright blue with black stripes and progressed as pictured above. I feed them spirulina and not much else. They graze on the algae covered rocks nearly non stop.

I have always believed they were Metriaclima Lombardoi. Kenyi cichlids. But after posting another thread about my tank and doing some research, it has come up that they may be something else. I have decided to restock my tank and identifying these guys seems like an important part of doing so. Kenyi have a bad rep(unknown by me until now) and I don't want to just toss some lambs to the lions so to speak.

What do you think they are?


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## nmcichlid-aholic (Mar 23, 2011)

With the exception of the small blue one, they look like Kenyi (Met. lombardoi) to me. The little blue ones are probably mostly Kenyi, too - the barring is just off some, so they could be hybrid or just a poorly bred strain. The behavior sounds accurate for Kenyi, as well. The lighter yellow one pictured looks like a sub-dominant male (based on fin shape and color), but female Kenyi have been known to take on light yellow coloration when feeling dominant or when holding. This said, don't assume all of the ones with yellow coloration are male. The bright yellow one is certainly a dominant male, though.


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## DesertSparky57 (Oct 17, 2013)

Thanks NM. The little blue is the last of the little blue ones, sadly. This is the only one that had the funny barring around the gill and head, is that the area you are referring to that is a little off? I wouldn't be surprised to learn they are poorly bred. I took the whole lot of them from a petsmart tank. They were labelled as Kenyi. It's no secret that petsmart gets it wrong more often than right though.

It's strange that now with just Meany the big male, his two subs and the one little blue that the tank is eerily calm. It's been these four only for nearly 3 months and it's looking like they are all good with the arrangement. I thought for sure that with what I believe to be a 3:1 M/F ratio that the future for little blue would be nothing but short.

Any chance that 'little blue' is a male?

I am kicking around the idea of an all male, mixed Malawi Mbuna tank.


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## nmcichlid-aholic (Mar 23, 2011)

I Think Petsmart Usually Has Their Kenyi Labeled Correctly, Since It Is One Of 4 Or 5 species They always Stock. It Seems To Be The New Or "Limited Edition" Specie They Usually Screw Up On. As For the Little Blue One, Yes The Barring On The Head And Face Is Strange, But All Of The Bars Aren't Quite Right. I Really Doubt It's A Male If You've Had It 4 Years And It still Looks like That. As I Mentioned, It's Possible One Of The Light Yellow Ones Is Female, But If You Haven't Had Any Breeding This whole Time It's Not Real Likely. I Do Think It's Odd That The Big Yellow One Hasn't Gone Ahead And Killed Off The Others, Though.

If You Want To Go With All-Male Mbuna, I Would Probably Start From Scratch And Get Rid Of All The Kenyi. Why Risk "Tossing Lambs To The Lion" As You Put It? If You Want To Add A Male Kenyi To The Group, It Would Be Better To Start Fresh With A Juvenile That Has To Earn It's Spot In The Pecking Order...


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## StangG20 (Aug 12, 2013)

i have 4 kenyi, 1m/3f. they range from 5-8 months old approximately and range in size from 2.5-3.5" long. strange that yours are so small. my male also still shows some barring similiar to your sub-dom


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## DesertSparky57 (Oct 17, 2013)

To add more confusion....

Today, just a few hours ago, I witnessed the little blue one mouthing with my 2nd sub dom. Out of nowhere the little blue one turns sideways and shimmy shimmy all fluttery, just like the big yellow male does.

Now I'm starting to think that my 2nd sub dom male is actually a very dominant female showing yellow. Comparing what I thought was two sub males, I now notice that the fin shape is different on the two. The bigger one has very pointed fins hanging down, almost a needle point with a fine line of white or bright blue on the leading edge.

The littler one does not have this. The fins are almost blunt, not drastically, but when comparing the two it is noticeable.

I've been watching the tank more lately, it's something I didn't realize I missed so much, and I noticed a peculiar behavior.

Little blue, big sub dom and big meany are all always out in the open.

The smaller one that I thought was #2 sub male is never out in the open. Unless there is food to be had. I've been trying to get a picture but it's very hard to get a pic of this fish.

So it looks like I still have a female in the tank. Males don't try to spawn with one another do they?


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

DesertSparky57 said:


> So it looks like I still have a female in the tank. Males don't try to spawn with one another do they?


Sometimes the distinctions between breeding and aggressive behavior are not always so obvious. I wouldn't assume too much about the sex of any of the 4 fish, other then the chances that all 4 are the same sex might be an explanation for why they are no longer breeding (??). For fish purchased 4 years ago, even for females they would be of small size :-?


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## DesertSparky57 (Oct 17, 2013)

Maybe that is all it was BC, I'll just have to watch the tank more  I have always loved keeping fish, I just need to actually learn some stuff and maybe in 9 more years I'll have a really sweet show tank. 

I'm sure one day it will all be obvious. Eventually!


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

DesertSparky57 said:


> were seen holding eggs several times.


Not unusual for some fry to survive in the tank, especially with some very aquarium strain mbuna, like kenyi. Hard for me to see any of these fish as 4 years from purchase, much less the one in the first picture which looks to be no more then about 6 months old :-? Is it possible that what survived in this tank was actually born in this tank at some time? :lol:


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