Cichlid ID please :3

[Aqua crew]

Have had 3 of these since they were fry. Two of them are still completely brown and now this one has exploded into blue. Very curious. Thank you in advance
-AC

 

[snowman17]

Kinda looks like a colored down white top hara I think the name is.

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[Aqua crew]

Just looked them up. They do look very similar. Mine are still very young, only one has any colour at all. I'm hoping they do get to be that bright. My ph is a solid 8.5, so that should help. Thank you for your help!

 

[jhawk__]

Maybe a cobalt blue zebra? Looks similar to mine

 

[Aqua crew]

Maybe a cobalt blue zebra? Looks similar to mine

That was my first guess. Although it appears as though he has some yellow on his dorsal fins.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

cynotilapia hara

 

[Iamtechno13]

I don't think it's any of those. My brother has some of those in one of his tanks but is at work right now. When he gets home in the morning I can tell you what it is.

 

[Iamtechno13]

There are so many different kinds of Mbuna and most of them have yellow or blue coloring if not both. I believe the hara is more of a baby blue but I could be wrong

 

[snowman17]

Op said it was young that could be why its not as bright as a mature one. Even the mouth says hara to me

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[Aqua crew]

That one and one of his siblings were lip locked earlier. Looks like I'll be transferring one to my 90G shortly. I appreciate all the feedback. He does appear to be getting lighter.

 

[Iamtechno13]

They can be tough to tell until they get a little bit older and get more of their adult color. About how big are they? And were all of them brown and they changed to blue or has the one been blue the whole time and are the others changing color?

 

[Aqua crew]

They were all brown, only a few weeks old -fry. Now just the one has begun colouring up while the smaller two remain brown. They are somewhere around 2&1/2 inches

 

[Aqua crew]

I will try and take some more pictures tomorrow.

 

[snowman17]

The one that colored up is the dominant of the three. You should vent then see if there all males if so they'll just fight and the other 2 will probably never color up with the other being dominant

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[Iamtechno13]

Could be a Hara but I don't know. My brother has a nice pair of Hara's and kinda looks like it depending on what color light its under as he showed me his under blue light which gave them the same color in the picture but there are a number of others it looks like as well. I was out there looking at his comparing it with the picture. The lips are huge on that fish in the picture though. It could be just because it's blurry but it has features from a couple different fish it almost seems like. I asked my brother and somebody else and thats a tough one.

 

[squirrilah fish]

I think it's a hara, or closely related cynotilapia. A lot of fish like that have a wide range of blue coloring that changes depended on mood and maturity. My Hongi hits every color from a deep purplish blue to sky white.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Looks like a blue zebra to me, we used to call them BB zebras or Red-topped BB zebras if the dorsal fins where red/yellow color. Now reclassified as Red Top Zebras (Metriaclima pyrsonotos). Distinguishing between the Metriaclima and the cynotilapia can be difficult, especially with ones that have not reached full size. If they came out of a tank of mixed Africans, they are more likely Metriaclima than Cynotilapia.

 

[Aqua crew]

Managed to snap a couple more pictures this morning

 

[sophiamarvv]

That looks like my kenyis

 

[Aqua crew]

His smaller siblings are basically completely brown with faint stripes. Very faint blue hue, if at all