FishFolk

I bought a tank that came with three cichlids - we think 2 are male and one female. One of our fishlore friends suggests they may be a redtop zebra - I think they may be right, but wanted to see if anyone else had another thought. One pix is one of the male with a bit of the female (?) in the corner. The other is the female(?)

Please excuse the tank - It came with a reverse trio and I am trying to break up territories with whatever we have to reduce aggression as I decide how to stock and furnish the tank.

Attached Images

	Red Top Zebra M and F.jpg (56.6 KB, 7 views)
	DSC05488.jpg (179.9 KB, 7 views)

steveangela1

Is there a way you could get a lighter pic of the one on the right? I think it would be able to tell the difference in the species by seeing 2 of the fish.

Allie

That looks like a Ice blue zebra. Metriaclima greyshakei. Red Top zebra are purple blue with black bars (navy). And that looks to be a female.

FishFolk

Here are a few more pix -

5489 is the light blue with darker stripes and orange tips on fins and orange egg spots .
5490 and 5495 are the other one. One is of his/her tail and the other is broadside. Most of the time he/she is grayish bluish purplish and very rarely, dark stripes appear. They fade quickly but you can see a hint of them in the tail pic. He/she is much darker than the other two but also has orange eggspots and he/she has very faint orange tips on fins.

Ice blue is actually the perfect choice of words to describe the color of the two that are the same. They seem to "battle" each other, mostly mouthing and posturing but have locked for a few seconds several times. The grey one stays out of their way, usually at the top of the tanks somehwere. But when they "battle", he/she just swims around like nothing is going on and they are oblivious to him/her. At one point tonight, one of the light blue ones was swimming in a circle with the grey one. It didn't seem to be a chase, they were just going around in a circle for about 1 min.

If the grey one is a female, it might explain her nudging the eggspots of the male.

I appreciate the help. Gotta figure out what they are so I can figure out what to do with stocking and decor

Attached Images

	DSC05490.jpg (337.9 KB, 1 views)
	DSC05495.jpg (230.6 KB, 1 views)
	DSC05489.jpg (169.1 KB, 0 views)

Allie

M. greyshakei for sure.

Here's a adult male RED Top Zebra we had

steveangela1

Sorry I was wrong, that was the other species I was wondering about, that was why I was wanting to see a lighter pic of the other, I def agree w/ Allie. They are so similar. My little male greyshakei does look like that pic. I wanted to say greyshakei at first, but I stuck w/ the red top because of the darker bars, not realizing that the adults can still have some darker coloring too still. (now I hope mine stays the same hes so pretty!)

FishFolk

Y'all are awesome! So I have two Metriaclima greyshakei males and one Metriaclima greyshakei female?

No apologies needed. The photos weren't that great and the first one was pretty dark. Plus they are pretty close. And both are really handsome fish.

Now, where does one find a m.greyshakei female? I'll check around - if either of you have a source, it would be great. if I weren't so anxious I could wait for the ACA convention in Jul! Maybe I can just get this one and wait til then...or...could that be my MTS flaring up so soon?

steveangela1

The pretty blues are the boys... so if you have 2 blues yes.
have you looked on aquabid? I bought my only greyshakei at a store in Knox, tn its been the only one I have seen in a while. You def would see some at the ACA convention if they have people selling there? I don't know what stores/breeders you have in your area that are trustworthy but you could ask around for a special order also. I have thought about it myself, my little greyshakei boy looks lonesome.

FishFolk

I have 2 blues, so that is 2 males. I tried aquabid and liveaquaria - no luck - We have one shop in Alabama that might be able to get it for us - I may ask around at AAAA this week too...If I find some, I'll let you know.

Am I still looking at the same sort of tankmates? Pseudotropheus demasoni caught my eye but I read they only get to 3-4 inches - Is that too small to put in with the big guys? And I still want something yellow - yellow labs, or pseudotropheus flavus (its females are grayish which may present a tank problem) and found an albino that is yellow a Protomelas sp. "Steveni Taiwan albino -

Thanks again.

steveangela1

The Pseudotropheus demasoni can be trouble if you don't put enough of them in a tank, you have to put about 6 of them in a tank. They are aggressive fish. That was a species we were looking at as well. The flavus I am not familar with, however the labs pretty much go w/ anything, imo due to their being so peacefull. One yellow I will warn you ahead of time about is the Mel aurartus, highly aggressive devils! I had a pair and I put up w/ them for about a couple weeks and out they went back to the store.
Trying to come up w/ breeds that aren't "devil fish" is hard right now. I am getting ready to pluck a few from my tank and put some different in there. I want to get rid of my oddballs that have no pairs.
We have a crabro (bumblebee), which is a yellow and he gets along w/ the ice blue just fine, but they are aggressive so it would be a touch and go w/ them.
Another that is not highly aggressive is an yellow tailed acei. They at least have a yellow tail.

Allie

Labs always make the tank pop with color. I wouldn't put too many striped species in one tank. The females all looks much too similar.
We had like 40 M.greyshakei of different sizes at one point. They were too aggressive for the species we are keeping/breeding. The dominant male kept digging up the gravel/sand.
What size tank do you have?

FishFolk

Steveangela and Allie-Thanks for the info-
Sounds like yellow labs may be one of my better choices-and they have great color .I was afraid the striped gray/brown females might be an issue, glad I asked. My tank is only 55 so probably don't have room for 6 p. demasoni and the ice blues and something yellow -

Tank tidbits: I am "over filtered" which I heard is a good thing. Added a couple shells to help with the water - until I can redo the whole thing. I found out last night that my heater is not working - The guy I got them from never used it/one, so I was trying to bump up the heat gradually. I kept checking but saw no rise in temp...hmmm...checked and the heater was stone cold. Goodness knows how these guys will act when they get some warmer water

Fishkeeping is a fulltime hobby -lol

Allie

In a 55g you can have about 12-15 full grown fish in there. Overstocking is a must with African cichlids, more to fight with. Spreads the aggression out. 1 male to 2-4 female works well for sex ratio. The more aggressive the male the more females I would try to get for him.

steveangela1

I didn't even think, if you get any fish from Dino where you all live in GA thats where I got my last bunch of fish. I got 3 labs from him and 2 peacock cicichlids. I don't know if he still has the labs or not but they were good enough size I could put them in my main tank, they were the ones that have already bred.

FishFolk

Cory got his first tank from Dino and the majority of his fish are from Dino. I dropped him an email - great idea.

Reworked the tank - see new tanks thread by coryd55. I also checked around town for a female. No one has them but petland (!) is looking. They called their buyer who is looking for them.

steveangela1

I hope you can find one for some reason I haven't seen many ice blues for sale. I will check out the new tank thread, I can't wait to see the pics. I just posted a pic of my one ice blue male w/ my new cichlid pics its an older pic of him.

FishFolk

very cool - i didn't know one could have your own gallery! But have to keep looking as I don't see the new pics. I did see your flametail - very pretty - actually all of your fish are beautiful - And love the tanks - You obviously found some cichlid sand heeheee

steveangela1

thanks, I got the flametail from Dino there is a pair in the tank, hopefully they will breed when they mature.My husband and I were there to pick up some labs and my husband saw them in a tank, we weren't looking for any peacocks but ended up getting them (I am so happy we did now! they are so healthy and my fav peacocks now) here is the link to the post w/ the pics:
Some new Cichlid Pics... plus holding mommys and a fry pic
the sand is the crushed coral out of the sw section of the fish store, it has the same properties as far as the minerals, and the alkalinity for the cichlids.