What kind of cichlid?

O

OneLady

AC Members
May 23, 2006
15
0
0
The LFS sold me a cichlid that was labled as a redfin blue neon. I loved it because the fins are a true red, not like the orange, red fin borley. I did a google search and found nothing. Does anyone know what this fish might be?

New121.jpg


New120.jpg


New117.jpg


The 3rd picture kind of shows the red tail. My fish is very camera shy, so the pics are not real good. If I am in the room without a camera, it swims up to the glass.
 
WOW!! I sure hope you are right, that's a beautiful fish. I should go back and get more. One store had them for $25 each and the other I bought it from was 9.99.
 
the difference is the quality of fish. i paid $75 for an f0. it is BRIGHT blue faced with red scales. less dominant males will not color as well, especially when tank bred.
 
in my opinion, if that's a Red Empress, i'll eat it. the Red Empress, aka Protomelas taeniolatus looks like this:
malawi71.jpg


and herein lies the problem of 'trade names' and marketing poetic license. if the LFS would use the latin names of the fish they sell, there would be no confusion.

i think your fish is most likely Aulonocara stuartgranti Lumbaulo "Blue Neon" but in the juvenile stage, it's hard to be sure. it may be Aulonocara steveni blue neon. another option is Haplochromis, borleyi red fin.

on the other hand, i could be all wet. ;)
 
Last edited:
Here is a site that shows a female red empress....http://malawicichlids.com/mw08087a.htm I think if your fish was less stressed when the pic was taken, you would see more of that upper, horizontal black stripe...I still can not tell for certain that is a female empress, but, as liv2padl states, it could be another Hap....IMO, definately not a female aulonocara of any type though....I've bred and seen many aulonocara, and have never seen a female that looks like that....they generally have vertical stripes and a larger eye..like this....http://malawicichlids.com/mw08006a.htm....still, I'm not willing to eat it....hehe!
 
If that is how he looks in "real life", then it's likely you have an empress...take another pic of yours if you can..cover the flash with a piece of paper angled upward to lessen the wash out affect...either way, it's a nice looking fish! Enjoy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom