P. zebra or P. estherae?

[Faramir]

Opinions solicited. The fish's mouth is much larger than a P. zebra of the same size.

Ta.

 

[JSchmidt]

It looks much more like my estherae than my zebras. My zebras tend to have a deeper body (from dorsal fin down) and a bit of a blunter face. I'm no expert, though, but I'm leaning toward estherae.

Jim

 

[morleyz]

I agree with Jschmidt on the body shape...but the stripes would point toward zebra. I believe I read one of the reasons they split off estherae was because of the lack of bars. However, I would also not consider myself an expert. http://www.malawicichlids.com has some good comparisons of the species.

 

[JSchmidt]

I looked at a variety of cichlid ID sites, and was surprised to see how many had M. estherae with stripes. I hadn't realized how common that pattern is, apparently.

Nice looking fish, though, Faramir. Are those common in your neck of the woods? Here we mostly get the standard aquarium trade orange estherae.

Jim

 

[vilhelm]

it is not a esterahe,probebly a P.sp"zebra mbenji" or a M.greshakei,BUt it could be a cross,the mouth dont look zebra at the photo(hope i have wrong) ,all malawi mbuna can crossbreed, fish from the "zebra" complex do it very easy.