Help to indentify this fish

Forevernight

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Jun 10, 2006
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I bought this fish at petsmart the other day. It was in a tank marked "assorted African Cichlids". Hes really small, I really like his color but, i want to know what type of Cichlid it is. Sorry the pic is bad, cheap camera. Any thoughts?
thanks.

fishpic.jpg
 
Nice fish :)

If it was in an assorted tank and not a species tank its almost certainly a hybrid and it is definitely a mbuna as opposed to a peacock.

From the colouration it could be a mix of many things : melanochromis johanni, maylandia lombardoi (kenyi), Pseudotropheus elongatus, even demasoni.
 
Thanks! That makes sense. "assorted". I didnt even think of it bieng a possible hybrid. Actually my 3 year old picked him out. "Blue fishy! Cool guy fishy.. his words. He was the only blue fish in the tank and i asked the petsmart fish girl to get the blue one. She had a hard time getting him!
 
I would consider "assorted" to mean various breeds of Chiclids not chiclids which were necessarily hybrids. I would guess Demason's Chiclid, but the image is a bit fuzzy to be 100% certain.
 
Same as derringer had already mentioned. It's possible that some of the assorted cichlids are not in fact hybrids. although a larger proportion of them probably is. Sometimes it's obvious and other times the hybridization occurred a few generations back so it retains the looks of one specie over another, although it might take on the personality of another.

It looks like a demasoni. If it grows any bigger it could be a maylandia zebra?? but with hybrids it could be both. who knows. Just know that it is mbuna and mbuna tend to be territorial. They tend to do better with other mbunas, but make sure you check on the compatibility of the mixes that you do.
 
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