View Full Version : African cichlid ID
These were sold to me as, clockwise from top left:
1. Peacock (fin is more orange than it looks in pic)
2. Blue Hap (hard to get straight pic of him, twists at last second)
3. Taiwan Reef
They all look so similar, all from same store - portraits are not perfectly scaled, the Blue Hap is the same size as the Taiwan Reef, the Peacock is a little smaller. They were all ~2" juvies when I got them last August.
I just thought I'd ask the experts if I have what I think I have!
Also, my pleco is about 3" long - same as when I got him 9/07 - when will he start to grow?
Thanks,
DU
Bnoble
03-11-2008, 7:16 PM
Looks like a Electric Blue harp to me!
ibr3ak
03-11-2008, 7:35 PM
Yeah the top 2 look the same to me, sciaenochromis fryeri. The bottom is protomelas steveni taiwan or taiwan reef, looks good.
^ wot 'ee said
nice fishies !
Thanks! They were all just brown when I got them, so it's been fun to see the color develop.
The top two are definitely more dominant than the taiwan reef, so is it fairly safe to assume that the frys' daddy is one of them? The brooding female is all brown with some bright yellow in her bottom fin - the fs guy called her a "sunshine."
Thanks very much for the info!
DU
When I told my husband that these were the same kind of fish, he couldn't believe it. (btw, neither of us knows what we're talking about). So I took more pics w/o flash to see if the differences would be more evident, and managed to get them together in two shots.
When I googled sciaenochromis fryeri, the pic looked like my "peacock" (the more lightly colored one in these pics, which is also the top left in the original set of pics) but the info did say the color varied within the species. So just tell me one more time that this is not a peacock so we can move on. :)
Thanks very much,
DU
ibr3ak
03-12-2008, 12:54 PM
It does look like a peacock, but it also looks like a part hap. Could be a hybrid of a peacock with protomelas spilonotus hap of some kind.
oh. Hmm.
My issue is that I have some fry that I would love to raise for fun and trade in to support my habit - I have about 30 that are about 1/2" long now. The fs guy said he would love to have them if their colors were good, which they might not be if they're cross-bred. The paternity was already questionable, and now it seems that I don't have a Peacock male at all!
Poor little guys - I go back & forth on this daily - do I get a grow-out tank ready, or do I just feed them to their parents? Ugh.
It does look like a peacock, but it also looks like a part hap. Could be a hybrid of a peacock with protomelas spilonotus hap of some kind.
that stripey fellow looks like it has some of that aulonocara 'eureka'/'german red'...which is a jacobfreiberg colour morph in it
hey, thank you very much for steering me in a direction - found this site - http://www.verse914.com/lakemalawipeacockspics.html
Here are the ones you mentioned, but I think the aulonocara hansbaenschi is closest - I checked other sites, too - mine looks very much like this pic when his color is deepest.
So even if they are both peacocks, breeding a hansbaenschi with a maleri (sunshine) produces hybrids - so not so great, right?
Thanks again for your help!
hybrids are a touchy subject. basically, best practice if you choose to keep the product of a hybridisation is not to allow them leave your tanks, as hybridisation weakens the purity of recognised fish strains if allowed into the general population.
but they can be beautiful fish, and there is nothing wrong in enjoying them in your own tank.
I hear ya. So I think I'll be bringing a matched pair together before I grow any fry. As far as keeping hybrids, I have 3 "toddlers" that have survived from the first go. I'll let these 30 go into the big tank, and whatever happens, happens - there are only about 8 good separate small caves, so ... i guess it's dinnertime. :(
Thanks again!