Help finding info on fish ...

J

jaylin

Don't ask if you don't want to know
Aug 14, 2005
519
0
0
Denver-ish Colorado.
Hey all, I was down to my lfs today and saw some cute little fish that I'm trying to find info on. They were labled "cherry reds" even though they were bright orange. They were most certainly an african cichlid and in were in a tank with some electric yellow labs. They were very similar body shape as the yellow labs and all the lfs guy could tell me beyond that was that they're a little more aggressive than the yellow labs, but still not so bad as other cichlids.

Does anyone know what these guys really are and where I can find info on them. I've had african cichlids before so I know all about creating an afican setup with higher pH and lots of hidy rocks and all that - So what I'm looking for is a scientific name and beyond the basics information.

Anyone, anyone?
 
Hi, jaylin!
I think those cherry reds are a variant of the red zebra (Metriaclima estherae). They are fairly aggressive and I think you should not mix them with yellow labs because crossbreeding is highly possible.
 
Last edited:
That does look like them! Thanks.

Yea, I wasn't planning on mixing those with the electric yellow, the juvies were just being kept that way in at the lfs. I've got a 29 that I'm thinking about turning into an african setup. The guy at the lfs was trying to tell me that was large enough to house 10 of these guys as adults. I'm leaning towards thinking that lfs guy needs his head examined ...

They are a lot more impressive in person than they are in pictures though ...
 
A 29g is somewhat short to house adults of this species IMHO.
 
I won't argue with that. I think I'm probably better off with some Tanganyika species ... which is actually what I was looking for when I found these guys. They sure are cute though. I might have to get another tank ... omg.
 
maybe some tanganyikan shellies and julidochromis would be sweet in that 29gal fo sure.. as for what that fish store was selling i would think that they were the regular mbuna zebra from your discription aye, the only other cherry red i can think of would be the tropheus cherry red spot tangies. is this what it looked like

57afdec98bfa8d68a88e82a8c80b824c.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom