Dojella

Not sure what these are. Any ideas? Also, one of the three goes from a really bold pattern (dark brown spots on tan background) to very faded light brown with almost no distinction between the spots and the background. This happens several times a day. Could this be a female and the other two (who always have the bold pattern) male?

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Allie

Nimbochromis venustus: This profile will answer your questions.
http://cichlidforum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1160
They get pretty large 10" and are aggressive as heck.

Shawnie

allie your knowledge on cichlids is so much appreciated!! great job as always

Allie

No problem. I love learning everything about the species of fish I keep.
I have read up, friends have kept, & we've kept a lot of fish who were to aggressive for me.

This species is one of them...it's a predator Malawi. They look awesome...and I was going to get one of the similar species. But the guy who I bought the fish from (the Malawi king of knowledge here) told me I wouldn't enjoy them with the other species I had at the time.
He and FishNFry taught me a lot about African cichlids.

steveangela1

I def agree w/ the id.
That is one commonly found cichlid around where I live at stores, however it def is a nasty fish (mean wise) and you need a large tank to keep them (75g +)

Allie

They are common here too. I am not fond of huge mean fish.

steveangela1

[quote=Allie;409416]They are common here too. I am not fond of huge mean fish.[/QUOT

Yea, that was a def no when we were picking malawi's out. I have shocked myself by how long I have kept the kenyi w/ their personality, of coarse I am sticking w/ the meanies w/ the polits, and flavus I think they will do better though because the male/female ratio is better.

Dojella

Thanks for the info! I have looked at so many pictures of cichlids trying to find out what mine are...guessing since they are juveniles and adults have different coloration, I must have missed it. I didn't realize they will get that big (I was told 6"). I just did some trading and tank rearrangement and they are now in a 55 gallon with lots of floor space and rocks/nooks to claim territory.

Allie

You're welcome.
Book mark that site I showed you...it's great for beginners with Malawi cichlids, the info is good, but the people on the forum aren't that friendly.
With aggressive species there should be one male to at least 3 females...the more the better.
Good luck with them. They are interesting fish.

Dojella

I have heard that most cichlids you find in the LFS will be male. Is this true? If mine are all male, will they be better off without females or should I try to find some females to help smooth things out? I would love for my cichlids to live in harmony as they grow...though I can tell already that some are very dominant and others very submissive. So far these guys are about average for aggression compared to the rest of the tank (2 4" chinese algae eaters, 2 8" dojo loaches, 3 3" electric yellows, 3 3" P. socoloffi)

Slug

Nah i wouldn't say that. Nothing like the Betta trade, you hardly ever see female bettas out there. Cichlids, a lot of times, males and females look the same at young ages so the wholesaler can't really pick and choose. Some species, even after sexual maturity, its near impossible to tell the difference.