Id help.

[Rlavassor86]

Can anyone Id this guy for me? The one in front, not the livingstoni in back.

 

[Aquarium Girl]

Can anyone Id this guy for me? The one in front, not the livingstoni in back.

Can't help with an ID but he's a gorgeous looking fish.

 

[Rlavassor86]

Can't help with an ID but he's a gorgeous looking fish.

Thanks. I got him out of a tank labeled assorted cichlids, and the attendant was no help. The stripe on his dorsal fin has kind of a iridescent blue tint to it. Looks really cool swimming in and out of the shadows.

 

[Cichlid-dude]

I can't id it either but that is a beautiful fish. A lit of times fish in the "assorted tank" are hybrids.

 

[Rlavassor86]

I can't id it either but that is a beautiful fish. A lit of times fish in the "assorted tank" are hybrids.

Thanks. Yea I kinda had a feeling after I haven't been able to find anything that really looked like him on cichlid-forum genus profiles.

 

[Wyomingite]

Is the dorsal mostly black or is the striping extending into it clearly defined?

Cynotilapia, posssibly. C. sp. "black dorsal", C. afra "Lumbila" or C. afra "Tchalo", maybe even C. sp. "black eastern". With the orange fringe on the caudal fin, I'd lean toward the "Tchalo", but there are so many durn intermediate color variations within any given locale I couldn't say for sure.

WYite

 

[Rlavassor86]

Is the dorsal mostly black or is the striping extending into it clearly defined?

Cynotilapia, posssibly. C. sp. "black dorsal", C. afra "Lumbila" or C. afra "Tchalo", maybe even C. sp. "black eastern". With the orange fringe on the caudal fin, I'd lean toward the "Tchalo", but there are so many durn intermediate color variations within any given locale I couldn't say for sure.

WYite

I just looked up some images of the Tchalo and its the closest thing to it I've seen so far. This guys striping isn't as defined though, so I think he may be a hybrid. Either way I still like the way he looks. Thanks for the info.

 

[Mogurako]

Is the dorsal mostly black or is the striping extending into it clearly defined?

Cynotilapia, posssibly. C. sp. "black dorsal", C. afra "Lumbila" or C. afra "Tchalo", maybe even C. sp. "black eastern". With the orange fringe on the caudal fin, I'd lean toward the "Tchalo", but there are so many durn intermediate color variations within any given locale I couldn't say for sure.

WYite

I doubt there is anything like that in mixed tanks, its looks like a hybrid of some type to me.

 

[Wyomingite]

I doubt there is anything like that in mixed tanks, its looks like a hybrid of some type to me.

Really?

Depends on the source of the mix. I've seen Abactochromis labrosus and Cyathochromis obliquedens in mixed tanks. I suppose ya wouldn't expect to see either of those in a mixed tank, either, would ya?

Putting two Africans of opposite sex in a tank does not automatically result in a hybrid. There are visual, pheromonal and even sonic cues that the species need to induce spawning, and the cues need to be either similar in the two species or impaired in some way in order for hybridization to occur. This has been studied in Lake Malawi and under laboratory conditions.

Hybrids do appear in nature and in the aquarium, not arguin' that. But with over 200 species of described mbuna and probly as many undescribed, it's a cop-out to just write it off as a hybrid without doin' some research. Realistically, it's just as likely a color variation of a known species/variety as a hybrid.

WYite

Edit: For that matter, I've seen tangs and Victorians shipped with and sold as "Mixed Africans", as well.

 

[Rlavassor86]

Really?

Depends on the source of the mix. I've seen Abactochromis labrosus and Cyathochromis obliquedens in mixed tanks. I suppose ya wouldn't expect to see either of those in a mixed tank, either, would ya?

Putting two Africans of opposite sex in a tank does not automatically result in a hybrid. There are visual, pheromonal and even sonic cues that the species need to induce spawning, and the cues need to be either similar in the two species or impaired in some way in order for hybridization to occur. This has been studied in Lake Malawi and under laboratory conditions.

Hybrids do appear in nature and in the aquarium, not arguin' that. But with over 200 species of described mbuna and probly as many undescribed, it's a cop-out to just write it off as a hybrid without doin' some research. Realistically, it's just as likely a color variation of a known species/variety as a hybrid.

WYite

Edit: For that matter, I've seen tangs and Victorians shipped with and sold as "Mixed Africans", as well.

You make a very good point. There's so many different species variations out there most places don't even get the known ones right.

 

[Wyomingite]

It could be a hybrid, don't get me wrong; but I am always cautious about making that determination. IME, most fish from mixed cichlid tanks can be IDed with a bit of effort, and before declaring "hybrid" it's best to exhaust all possibilities, IMO. The fish shipped in mixed batches are a combination of sports that couldn't be identified from shipments of wild fish or of which there weren't enough of to sell as a batch, left over captive-bred fish the wholesaler no longer has enough of too fill specific orders, and oddball captive-bred fish that came in with orders of known fish (hybrid or pure-bred contaminants).

WYite