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View Full Version : Anyone ID this Mbuna..Help



johnym
02-25-2007, 5:00 AM
Hello all new to this forum but just wondered if anyone colud help me ident this cichlid he is about 2 inch at the moment and very fiece was boss of the tank before the jewels which are just plain bigger so no aggression.

12890

12891

I cannot remember this one and cannot find them in the shop anymore he is more purple with blue/yellow dorsal edges the females are silvery/ rusty stripes a nice fish though. (i thought m. esterae).
many thanks in advance

angelfish123
02-25-2007, 8:04 AM
I'm pretty sure you got yourself a female Labidochromis sp "mbamba", or yellow-top mbuna. Take a look at this-

http://www.african-cichlid.com/mbamba.htm,

although the top two are males and don't strongly resemble yours, the female is almost identical to your photo. Correct me if I'm wrong.

johnym
02-26-2007, 2:39 PM
I know what you mean but he/she keeps a male kennyi at bay and a male Chipokee he is also quite big i thought some kind of zebra because of temperment sorry the photos are pap, he has a jet blue dorsal fin apart from the yellow but only at the ends. Looks a dead ringer for a metriaclima esterae male from gnome but yellow ended fins even the face (not the orange ones obviosly and not sure if this is possible) and they grow fairly big. Unless I have a hybrid but hope not, although a mega fish but females(as i think they are) are drab rusty/ silver and have less pronounced egg spots .

Psuedofire
03-02-2007, 11:23 AM
im pretty sure it's a Metriaclima greshakei or other known as a Blue Ice zebra. It is Definitely a male you can see the eggs spots. It's still fairly young.

fishfreak317
03-02-2007, 11:56 AM
might be a elongatus specie. notice the apparent stripes differences with the fish in question and the mbamba "females". also eggs spot on mbuna, don't always mean its a male.

JoeQuality
03-02-2007, 3:43 PM
I have one of these too, and it's so hard to find the right species name. Pseudotropheus, Metriaclima, Labidochromis, ....

I'm thinking Psudofire got it right with the M. greshakei because the ventral fins are long.

Shagmaster
03-02-2007, 3:56 PM
im pretty sure it's a Metriaclima greshakei or other known as a Blue Ice zebra. It is Definitely a male you can see the eggs spots. It's still fairly young.

I agree,
Looks exactly like my Ice Blue Zebra.

Psuedofire
03-04-2007, 11:49 AM
might be a elongatus specie. notice the apparent stripes differences with the fish in question and the mbamba "females". also eggs spot on mbuna, don't always mean its a male.
generally at a small size such as this egg spots are 90% accuarte in sexing this fish. I would also have to say with two Spots showing up so early, The chances of it being a female are extremely slim.