Shawnie

wondering what this fish is? a friend of mine was thinking it was an african but im not so sure...maybe/maybe not ...almost looks like a green terror combo of some kind....juvie JD? .any other opinions? what am i.jpg

Amanda

I vote african. Not positive though.

navyscuba

Nope is not a JD. Is a African Cichlid I had two till the girlie got beat up one night and next day around noon died. Here's a link to it. Some have some light blue stripes from eye to eye but some others don't. So I only have the male now. I wish I could find some more. I got them at Petsmart but haven't find them anymore. Where did you got it?
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com...us_usisya.html

navyscuba

Hey Shawnie did that helped you?

Angela_96

Its a "cheif" lol... its just like the petsmart surprise my husband got a year ago.. it was an impulse buy... but I love him hes a wonderful fish!
We have yet to id him. Hes pretty though!

Heres cheif:
Now:


When we bought him as a juvie:

navyscuba

What kind of cichlid is Chief cuz mine is like Shawnies?

Angela_96

After looking though my Konings Cichlid Bible a million times, all the cichild profiles, asking other breeders, posting on all the "cichlid forums" out there....

No positive id yet... I am wondering if its a afra/psuedo hybrid.

Angela_96

His teeth, and fins are like the afra, but the coloration and body is like a psuedo species of some kind..

navyscuba

Yeah mine is already full grown. Is about 5" and the other I think it was a female. Do you think it could be a Usisya? Let me see if I can take a pic. He's camera shy.

Angela_96

I have wondered if that was what Cheif was, but I never wanted to "pin" an id on him and get matching females in fear I was wrong.

Shawnie

LOL i have no clue either way ..hence why i was asking you alll hahahah ...thing i find with africans is that i can find 5 different fish that look the same but arent

Angela_96

That has been one of the only africans I cannot id... I just call him psuedo cheif ... in all honestly they could be mutts....
I think they are beautiful fish, I am tempted to get a few more just for their color.

navyscuba

I know I tried to find some more where I got him but no luck. I got some babies but not sure what they are so far but my best guess goes to Reds. check out the video of the tank.

dmm28

You guys could try e-mailing the picture(s) to Spencer Jack. Just type in his name and you'll find his website. I'm sure he could help you i.d ur fish!!!

Angela_96

After really thinking about the hybrid/non hybrid, I have to say that having hybrid malawi's or any fish is a rare occurance, its basicly fertilization by accident. If petsmart has them and they are widespread through the states (every petsmart in tn I have been in has them) I am going to go out there on a limb and say its prob a psuedo elongatus (like above).
Breeding them, is an ify thing. I just don't breed my petsmart cichlids. But someone else might want to...

navyscuba

Hi guys I just found this on a cichlid forum. Looks like yours Shawnie also mine is like it. http://www.cichlids.com/pictures/pic...ld_caught.html

Angela_96

The only issue with that for it to be wild caught petsmart wouldn't have that quality of fish readily avalible. These guys were raised in a fish farm.

navyscuba

I understand that but is the closest that we can get to ours so far. Mine dont have the vertical stripes like yours.

Angela_96

The elongatus species all have vertical striping. I have went through the Konings profiles again in my book and there is nothing that would give me 100% that they are Elongatus, their are several sub-species of Elongatus though and their could be not "hybrids" but mixes of the different sub-species. The Elongatus is just part of the name, the rest is what part of the lake they are from all having different colorations.
The afras, labs, etc also have different colorations. I have a group of yellow labs that have white on their bellies (they are "lions cove" labs) the ones people buy at the fish stores are solid yellow and the most "common".
Most of the pet store fish will be the commons, and the mixes of the coloration.

There is still a huge chance they could be afras of some sort, Cheif has the mouth/teeth formation of the Cynatilapia Afra species.

navyscuba

Mine has stripes but they are really dull. They look like the ones on a yellow lab. I'll keep looking till I find something but I'm still going with the Usisya.