orange assorted african cichlids red zebras?
- Thread starter AquariumNoob13
- Start date
alright. because my sis is taking me and she wud be pissed if we went up just to get pics. and they have a 15 day return policy if they die and a 30 day if they are still alive.
There is nothing wrong with healthy, beautiful hybrids or mbunas that are not 'known' to be pure. It is almost impossible to know if they are pure and since the only thing that matters is that they are mbunas there isn't anything to worry about.
still i like how the behavior of the red zebra is described. and they are beautiful looking fish.
That may all depend. Many (but not all) hybrids can be identified as being such due to obvious or subtle discrepancies of conformation to a particular species (unless, of course, they're hybrids from two very similar species).
A l. caeruleus/m. estherae hybrid should be fairly easy to spot while a male m. johanni/m. cyaneorhabdos hybrid might pass for the species of either parent (at least when matured).
and a hybrid zebra tends to have a lighter slight yellowish color if it is crossed with a yellow lab which is the most common hybrid right?
With some you can tell they ARE NOT pure, but truly knowing if an individual IS pure cna be much harder. I see no point in worrying about it anyways. If they are healthy, beautiful mbunas then they are healthy, beautiful mbunas.
Due to the variation margin which can exist among red zebras (deep carrot orange to pink-tinted white, and even blue for those originating from Minos Reef in Lake Malawi), body shape and head shape will be the primary indicator. Sometimes they'll look like bulky yellow labs but more orange in color.
Red zebras are so commonly available, the odds are in your favor that they're not hybrids.
That would really depend on the store, in big chains yea you mostly get hybrids in a mixed tank, but in smaller lfs's (or at least the one I'm getting my fish from) they have pure breds in their mixed tanks, you do get an occasional yellow lab with bearding or a red zebra with tiny black blotches (not OB, which mostly disappear as the fish matures), but that's as "bad" as it gets.
