Did I misidentify my fish?

[Jacky12]

I thought I had 3 lombardios. I was disappointed to read Colin was correct in saying they are super aggressive Rift cichlids. I just found 10+babies in their tank and didn’t I know what I’d do with a batch of meanies. The three adults get along well. Out of no where it occurred to me these may be Pseudotropheus saulosi. The females are yellow and the males blue. I bought them several months ago in a little local Facebook group.

Here’s the best photos I could get. The room has skylights and the fish were active my IPad lacks a flash and I can’t get good pics of fish in motion.

 

[Jacky12]

Here’s a pic of what I hope I have!

 

[Colin_T]

The yellow fish looks like it has a mouthful of eggs or babies. It appears to be quite skinny as well and this is usually associated with holding eggs or babies for a few weeks. However, it can also mean the fish have intestinal worms. It's a good idea to deworm all fish when you get them just to make sure they are infested.

Has the yellow fish ever had any black bars on the body?
If not it might be a hybrid. The blue ones could be hybrids too because of the yellow tail on blue body.

Need a Rift Lake cichlid specialist to id them properly, sorry I can't help more with that.

 

[Jacky12]

With much digging through old posts in a local Facebook forum, I was able to ID these fish from when I bought them. They are indeed saulosi. Yay! I was not happy when I remembered them as lombardios, given your correct assessment of their aggressiveness. That said, this trio got gets along magnificently. Additionally, I have a few guppies in the tank which they ignore. Initially, I thought the little ones hiding under the sponge filter (used primarily for aeration) were guppies & wondered how they made it to that size, but closer inspection revealed little striped cichlids.

The female was swimming rapidly in my photo, a factor in making her appear thinner than she is. I flushed her out from a hiding place to get the photo in my zeal to ID before I located the Facebook post. Interesting you think she may be holding. I seriously doubt she has worms. So far as I know, none of my 200+ fish have had worms.

It will be interesting to see how many of the babies survive. I plan to keep them all in the current 40 gallon long breeder tank, but will possibly upgrade. These guys are on the small side. The male has not yet fully colored up & I expect him & his boys to become quite beautiful.

This sexual dimorphism in the lombardios and saulosi is fascinating, particularly given the reversal of colors. Most of my females are a drab stripy grey except the OBs that are not as colorful as the boys.

Here’s the Facebook ad from when I got the 3. saulosi.