These do sound horribly like a Melanochromis species of some desciption. I can't think of any other blue horizontally striped cichlids off hand. Vicious little creatures, IME.
Do you have/can borrow a digital camera? You could attach a picture.
[horrible image of someone scanning their poor fish springs to mind........]
Don't get too defensive - some very good points are being made here. Cichlids are extremely variable in the care they require, and fish shops are very variable in how good they are with the advice they give out. If they are a Melanochromis, they are highly aggressive, for example, and will need appropriate handling, and hard alkaline water. If a south American species, they might require very different conditions - not that I can think of a horizontally striped SA cichlid, but it's a big family.
Hey, and we're not all crazy over here..... at least we know how big a gallon should be
Do you have/can borrow a digital camera? You could attach a picture.
[horrible image of someone scanning their poor fish springs to mind........]
Don't get too defensive - some very good points are being made here. Cichlids are extremely variable in the care they require, and fish shops are very variable in how good they are with the advice they give out. If they are a Melanochromis, they are highly aggressive, for example, and will need appropriate handling, and hard alkaline water. If a south American species, they might require very different conditions - not that I can think of a horizontally striped SA cichlid, but it's a big family.
Hey, and we're not all crazy over here..... at least we know how big a gallon should be