# Labeotropheus fuelleborni



## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

Anyone have these? I did a search and, from what I read, you should either go 1 or a ton. Males are super aggressive towards the females. I wouldnt mind having one. I'd like to get the OB version (are those Marmalade's or are all fuelleborni known as Marmalades).

Just wanted to see what others have them thought. Id like to put one in my 125, but I'll have fairly peaceful mbuna (c. moorii, maybe a few peacocks, peaceful mbuna) in there. If dont mind skipping this one, but his I like the look of them.


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

I have them, as well as a bunch of juveniles growing out. I've never seen them be persistently aggressive to each other beyond some chasing now and then, and I have 5 males and 2 females in my 125. Only male ob's are called Marmalade Cats. Probably not the best idea to keep them or most other mbuna with peacocks and haps though.


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## GaFishMan1181 (Dec 17, 2008)

I bought some wild caught fish from cichid exchange years ago. They were $25 a fish but were very large and beautiful. The location I got were katale. My male mated with each female once and eventually killed every single female. I still have the male. He is 6" long and very beautiful and surprisingly peaceful to other species.

Marmalade just means a male OB fuelleborni but alot of times you will never know what location the marmalade is from or if it is even true to just one location or a cross of two different locations of fuelleborni.

Its hard to know how he will act to your fish but if you get a smaller one he would probably be ok. My fuelleborni has only gone crazy on one mbuna male and it was a pearlmutt but it was my fault for introducing the perlmutt by himself and not with other fish.


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

I'm aware of mixing the peacocks/mbuna. I'm only going for a couple peacocks, maybe more aggressive types to fit with the peaceful mbuna. I accidentally ended up with OB Blueberry peacocks (ordered blueberry ZEBRAS, got these instead). I have them temporarily housed in my 55 with zebras, labs, Rustys... they hold their own. I'm not entirely sold on the peacocks anyway. Mbuna are my favorites.... i just love the finnage on the peacocks. But, I wont buy a fish just to watch it get beat... so the peacocks will be well planned out, and possibly cancelled.

I may try a single Marmalade. He wasnt on my original stocking list, but I'm searching for someone who has either a) Williamsi North or b) Blueberry ZEBRAS in stock and came across him and he's gorgeous.

Thanks for the replies. The search I did found posts a few years old and it said male terrorized the females (reminded me of Demasoni), so... after the replies, I may just try one.

Having problems finding any in stock on the regular sites I visit (only one male left as of now, not ready to order just yet). If you decide to sell your fry and ship, shoot me a PM


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## reiko1897 (Jan 16, 2012)

These guys have jaws of steal :fish: :dancing:


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

lilcountrygal said:


> I'm aware of mixing the peacocks/mbuna. I'm only going for a couple peacocks, maybe more aggressive types to fit with the peaceful mbuna. I accidentally ended up with OB Blueberry peacocks (ordered blueberry ZEBRAS, got these instead). I have them temporarily housed in my 55 with zebras, labs, Rustys... they hold their own. I'm not entirely sold on the peacocks anyway. Mbuna are my favorites.... i just love the finnage on the peacocks. But, I wont buy a fish just to watch it get beat... so the peacocks will be well planned out, and possibly cancelled.
> 
> I may try a single Marmalade. He wasnt on my original stocking list, but I'm searching for someone who has either a) Williamsi North or b) Blueberry ZEBRAS in stock and came across him and he's gorgeous.
> 
> ...


Once the fry get at or just over an inch, that's when I start to sell them. I do ship as well. It may take a little longer to differentiate male ob from female ob though.


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

I currently have a breeding group in our 125g. While they are kinda abusive towards one another (not just male on female), it seldom results in any injury.


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

> Once the fry get at or just over an inch, that's when I start to sell them. I do ship as well. It may take a little longer to differentiate male ob from female ob though.


one thing I didnt look at... are the males and females that different in coloration? Im not sold on a definite male, unless the coloring is completely different. The picture I saw that I like is on livefishdirect.com. Is that a Marmalade?


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## Steffano2 (Jan 11, 2007)

why_spyder said:


> I currently have a breeding group in our 125g. While they are kinda abusive towards one another (not just male on female), it seldom results in any injury.


+1, I never found them to be the killers everyone made them out to be. I will say they fall into the Mbuna cow category, you cannot feed them enough. They also get large, my MC male grew to be about 8". I personally like the slimmer body style of Labeotropheus trewavasae better.


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## iwade4fish (Jan 5, 2009)

8" sounds right for WC, my 'Katale' is right about there.
Get yourself some Labeo., you'll be happy you did!!!


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## AlphaWild (Apr 9, 2009)

Just thought I would add this point, since I was recently searching hi and lo before I found mine. Even though "marmelade cat" properly refers to an OB male, different sellers may throw the term around willy-nilly to anything blotchy, so, buyer beware. I purchased "regular" colored male and OB female juvies from a local hobbyist. He says roughly 20% of his male fry are OB.


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

lilcountrygal said:


> > Once the fry get at or just over an inch, that's when I start to sell them. I do ship as well. It may take a little longer to differentiate male ob from female ob though.
> 
> 
> one thing I didnt look at... are the males and females that different in coloration? Im not sold on a definite male, unless the coloring is completely different. The picture I saw that I like is on livefishdirect.com. Is that a Marmalade?


With my group at least, the male OB's are more of a blueberry/yellow colored blotch, while the females are more of a black/orange blotch.


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## magic10 (Feb 1, 2012)

Yes the picture on livefishdirect.com is a true one. I have one in a all male mbuna tank and he is pretty peaceful but he will finish a fight though..great fish


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## Skallekaj (Oct 27, 2010)

I like these fish - - even tough they should probably be kept in a tank bigger han my 250L - Im still stuck with my starting group 2m5f - and i have no problem with agression and they will be close to 3 years old now and fully matured.

I have a normal and a MC male - but never got a MC juvenile from the 2 times i picked holding female to spitting tank. All females are OB.





 -

But definately the best protecting and carefull fish when attending the fry! :thumb:


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

Awesome video!! thanks for sharing!

I'm gonna have my LFS order these if they are available (wont order them online unless I have to). Is there a way to tell males from females at, say, 1.5-2 inches?


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

Sexing easy depends on the bloodline. A bloodline with known OB males and females, or known standard coloration males and females will be very hard to sex. A bloodline with just standard males and OB females will be easy.


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

so, basically, if my LFS orders these, and has 10 swimming in a tank, its a **** shoot? Or would I look for faint color... or longer fins.... I know most of the time venting is the only sure fire way of getting male, but if Im looking at a tank of them in my LFS, is there anything that will give me an edge? slight coloration?


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## Ver A (Dec 25, 2009)

I keep fuelleborni along with red zebras in a 75. The tank has at least 20 grown fuelleborni (3 male) and 7 or 8 adult red zebras. It is very common for them to spawn in the tank and for many young to make it until I decide to remove them. My Katale fuelleborni are about 6 inches, the dominant male is ob and two of his sons are the regular solid males.They are also breeding now as the old man is 3 or 4 years old now. My experience with them is that any that have blue on them are males. This is true 99 percent of the time. I would not recommend putting a male fuelleborni in a tank with peacocks. He will aggressively dominate the tank. If he isn't dominate he will not show good coloring. My tank has layed limestone and sandstone with lots of hiding place. My 8 inch pleco also resides in there. He gets into it with the old male sometimes. I find the crowding good and use a canister as well as a hob filter. The tank gets a quick vaccuum every other day.
This was my first African tank, I now have 20 plus tanks, I am retired and enjoy puttering daily with my fish.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I'd either buy an adult sexed male or buy a bunch of juveniles and raise them until you can ID a male and sell the rest to a hobbyist. :thumb:


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

Sounds good. I may do that (buy a bunch) unless I see something in the tank that has tons of blue. I'm not even sold on the Marmalade actually, but I have to say... they are gorgeous! Thanks for the tips! :thumb:


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## Steffano2 (Jan 11, 2007)

why_spyder said:


> Sexing easy depends on the bloodline. A bloodline with known OB males and females, or known standard coloration males and females will be very hard to sex. A bloodline with just standard males and OB females will be easy.


*Spyder* don't you have a video of your Fulls breeding you could share? It would be nice for the OP to see it.


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

yes, Spyder, I would LOVE to see that! 

Also, if someone can help me clear up some confusion. (Not sure if I can post a picture from a vendors website or not, so I wont). The picture on livefishdirect.com under "Marmalade Fuelliborni" is what I want... there are blotches, but they are faint. I like the yellow/purple light spot of that picture. When I google "Marmalade fuelleborni", I get more of an OB, blotchy fish that doesnt particularly look like livefishdirect's fish. Are there fish that really look like that or is that just an excellent photo used by a site to sell a particular fish? I dont want to order it and get a darkly blotched fish.. (I have OB Zebras, looking for OB Blueberry zebras, and have OB blueberry peacocks... I like blotch, but I dont want more).


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

Here's a vid I did of mine spawning over a year ago. Blue male, OB female. You can see her grab an egg at the :53 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMOXAsfv ... ature=plcp


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

It's just a short clip:


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

Thanks! I'll check it out later this evening (that particular website is blocked from my work computer).

does anyone have any insight on my question on Livefishdirects picture vs. Marmalade Cat? Not sure what I need to ask for to get something that looks like their stock photo.


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

If you don't want more blotchiness, then I wouldn't buy OB's. It's hard to say what you'll get from LFD simply because what they are selling is a 'domestic strain' - the variability of coloration could be all over the board. Also, it is hard to say if the photos they are using on their site are of their stock - they may have bought the rights to use someone else's photo as an example of what their stock could look like.

If you buy locale-specific species, you can get a better idea of what to expect for coloration (i.e. - when I bought Katale Island's, I knew the males should have orange and blue coloration.).


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

Thanks, spyder. so, if I ask for a regular Fuelleborni male, I should get closer to what the stock photo is on LFD? I think what had me confused is that picture is listed under their Marmalade cat.

I think I'll head back over to the profile section and see if I can find a locale-specific species instead of just general Fuelleborni.


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## Steffano2 (Jan 11, 2007)

Have you looked at the fuelleborni that Dave's has pictured?


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## why_spyder (Mar 2, 2006)

If you were to ask for a 'regular male' _Lab. fuelleborni_ - you would get one with no blotching, which there is none on that site. Anytime the name 'marmalade cat' is used, it is describing that the fish have blotching.

I have no idea what the 'domestic strain' regular coloration is, but I can't imagine it would be as pretty or consistent throughout the strain as buying by a specific location.


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