# Melanochromis Joanjohnsonnae pics anyone?



## laihafloyd (Nov 28, 2007)

I haven't seen hardly any pictures of these guys on the forum so i thought i'd start a thread for them. Any takers? 
I don't know much about the species, just what the forum has on the profile page (which isn't much) - are the joanjohnsonnae pretty common/popular? Any way, here it is...


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## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

I dont have one but your is beautiful! :drooling:

I want one (well maybe 4 or 5!)!!!


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## Sakura (Sep 7, 2007)

Well, my pictures are rather unfabulous, but here:









Here is mine soon after I bought him.









Here is mine a couple months ago. He is a much deeper blue now.

I rather enjoy him. He digs a lot and is active in the tank, but isn't very aggressive. I also like that his body shape is different than my other mbuna.


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## laihafloyd (Nov 28, 2007)

How big are they? they have a lot more blue in them than the ones i have. Mine are only about 2 inches right now.
I have three and one is really starting to get a bluish tint to him, but still nothing like the ones above.


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## Sakura (Sep 7, 2007)

Mine is at about 3.5". I believe females keep the red spots more, but I could be mistaken.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Sakura said:


> I believe females keep the red spots more, but I could be mistaken.


You are correct. The females keep the juvenile coloration. The males slowly turn blue as they mature. As adults, they have similar coloration to the PS. socolofi, though with much less black in the fins


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

Really neat looking fish. I wasn't very familar with this species. Thanks for sharing. I really like the female or juvie coloration the best. It's just so different from any other that I know of. Just inforces my idea that you could have a very nice looking all female tank just as well as an all male tank if you picked the right fish :thumb: .


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

If you really like the female coloration, you might try to find some Labidochromis textilis. They have a very similar coloration and the males do not change. They can be hard to find, as more often than not, they are actually joanjohnsonae or sometimes even a cross.

There has been some question as to wherether the pics in the textilis profrile are correct, so *here *is a link to another site (its in french, but the pictures are good) of actual textilis

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## Sakura (Sep 7, 2007)

Holy cow! I had been told that textilis and joanjohnsonae were actually the same thing, but those pictures are clearly a completely different species. The difference in body shape is quite noticeable.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Yes the body shape and the patern of the colors are diferent when you really look at them. Much like the issues with many of the zebra complex species. They are very close at first look or as juveniles and get mixed together at pet stores. The retail side of the hobby is quite a few years behind on the proper names of fish species which only add to the problem. The people they often employ to unpack and sell the fish rarely know (or truely care) that this fish has been reclassified as athat and even though thises two species look identical to the untrained eye as juveniles with actually grow up to be vastly different fish. Think of how many places still have Sc. freyeri listed as Sc. ahli even though the true Sc. ahli is very rarely imported and almost never into the regular retail trade (apparently they are actually not quite as attractive as the fryeri). They were probably categorized as a single species way back when and the stores and mass breedres never worried about staying on top of the taxonomy changes.


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## laihafloyd (Nov 28, 2007)

when i first bought my joanjohnsonnae it was labeled as exasperatus. i used the forum profiles and couldn't tell whether it was a textilis or joanjohnsonnae. the only reason i thought it wasn't textilis was because several people mentioned that they are very rare and the exasperatus were being sold at three different stores - not exactly rare. that pic of the textilis definitely rules it out now!


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## misplacedsooner (Apr 13, 2007)

top pic is correct name...add in pearl of likoma. very nice, just picked some up yesterday at our auction...a steal for 2 bucks for 6 of em!!
mike


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## GeeForce11 (Mar 13, 2006)

This is my female M. Joanjohnsonnae (Exasperatus) like a year ago around 3'', now she's 4+'':









Some pics from Ad Konings of different L. Textilis:
























L. Flavigulis:








L. Caerulus Chilucha:


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## bbtuna (Nov 7, 2007)

This is a one of the first fish I bought over a year ago. He is now about 4 inches. I admit I did not know what it was when I bought it as I was very new to the hobby but I am pretty sure he is a Joanjohnsonnae.


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## bbtuna (Nov 7, 2007)

Oops... don't know how that got deleated.


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