malawi question

What's the name of that common blue striped cichlid (pseudotropheus ?????) From petco/smart? My sons friend bought 3 of them four years ago and now in his 125 gallon has like 100. He asked me what the were, and I dident know for sure. I don't have a picture but could probably get one. Its just that really common one that both the chains sell. Thanks ahead of time.

Pseudotropheus demasoni maybe!?

Never seen dems at those places. Pics would help so many variety's.

Horizontal or vertical bars?

Size (if it's an adult now)?

Pic's are probably the only way we're going to be able to help, as there are many, many blue barred cichlids.

Zebra

id say chipokea, or socolofi. chipo is a melanochromis species but is blue barred, socolofi is also blue w/ bars. pics are the only way for sure tho.

I just called the guy and asked him to send me some pics. He said that sometimes the blue striped ones (vertical stripes), get yellow or golden colors to them and look a lot like there p. Crabro (bumble bee). So pics to come soon I hope.

Hmm.... well, there's not really any blue in Ps. Crabro so I'm thinking it's probably something else. Blue to yellow would sound more like a Ps. Saulosi, maybe a Met. Kenyi, or even a Ps. Elongatus "Chailosi". Certainly the Cyno. types have these colors and markings, but I've never seen them at the chains.

Oh sorry I worded that porely. They have crabro in the tank with the blue guys, they said sometimes they can't pick out the female crabro, because the blue ones change so much and look so much like the crabro.

I thought saulosi at first, but then relized that he said they look like the crabro. Don't saulosi turn solid yellow with no bars? And isent that just the females? And don't they stay that way once they turn? And also petco would never get those in.

Kenyii


Very common at lfs

Fry and females stay blue, males turn yellow

ya i second the kenyi recommend based on what your saying.

I was always told that they are the Zebras. Metriaclima kenyi. Are they not referred to, as Zebras?

fish_n_vw wrote:Don't saulosi turn solid yellow with no bars?

Dom Saulosi males turn blue with vertical black bars. Sub males and females stay yellow.

gobluecichlids wrote:Kenyii


Very common at lfs

Fry and females stay blue, males turn yellow

Kenyii!!! Those are the ones I was trying to think of!

madness wrote:I was always told that they are the Zebras. Metriaclima kenyi. Are they not referred to, as Zebras?

No, generally "zebra" refers to the red zebra, albino zebra, cobalt blue, socolofi (maybe, not sure on this one) and those types. What's consistent amongst these is that they have barring that comes and goes depending on their mood and stress level. They are all, however, Metriaclima.

Metraclima Lombardio is the latin name for Kenyii

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One of the starter bread and butter african cichlid. It was one of my first I had entering the african hobby.

I'm almost certain the fish in question is Metriaclima Lombardoi(Kenyi) I see big chain tanks fully stocked with these all the time.

In my experience these fish need at the very least a 75 gallon tank the males can be hyper aggressive and will pick on yellow labs, other metriaclima species ,as well as they're own females.

Mistakingly people buy these fish at a petsmart or petco without knowing the housing requirements. Mostly because the females exhibit the nice blue bars even before sexual maturity. Not knowing that at some point some of those"females" will turn yellow and eventually wreak havoc on a smaller Mbuna/Malawi tank.

Larry is correct in saying Kenyi aren't really considered zebras.

I think mostly because there barring is a broken type. It does not go the entire height of the fish like a demasoni or cyno Afras bars do.

Metriaclima is usually the genus for Zebra.

Remeber that in the wild Red Zebra males are typically powder blue with dark VERTICAL bars and not usually the bold Red zebras we see so commonly in the hobby. I believe Ad Konings estimated less than 1% of Wild Estherea males were red,and 0.1% were the OB variety.

If you think about an actual Zebra(striped horse). You could associate any vertically barred species as Zebra.

In that Sense many Pseudotropheus and Cynotilapia would also fit as Zebra.
It's really just a common name anyway and does not ever truly identify any particular species