New Member Need Help I.D

C

Courage

Members
Hi All,

I recently began the journey of cichlids and would like to keep a log of the fish I currently own. I have bought a number and have I.D some however I am having difficulties in knowing the others.

Photo Number:

1. Is my first fish a Metriaclima Estherae (M)?

2. Is the second fish the female version of it?

3. I know that the Labidochromis Caeruleus is hard to tell the difference in sexes, however is the fish looking up female, the others of the same breed appear to have the stronger black on their fins like the one near the bottom of the photo.

4. Could someone please help ID these two (top/bottom) I cannot tell :(

5. What is the blue fish breed?

Thanks for all your help :)

1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg
 
C

Courage

Members
Thanks verbal, i think you might be right with pic 5 i will watch him and see if he grows that bump of a head.

The females i think i bought with him but the LFS couldn't tell me what breed they were (i dont think i will go back there again lol).

Thanks again for helping I hope to complete the log of fish to make it easier to remember what fish i have and hopefully if any breed what they are :)
 
dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
1. Looks like a Met. estherae (probably male) - not sure if it's "pure" though
2. The orange fish is a hybrid peacock (maybe a "Firefish") - maybe female and definitely not Met. estherae. There's also a (female) Nimbochromis venustus (brown and gold one). They get about a foot...
3. Two yellow labs and the hybrid peacock. The one with more black is likely male. Hard to tell on the other (female or subdominant male)
4. Two poeacocks (Aulonocara) of unknown provenance. Top one could be a subdominant male. Lower one looks female.
5. Cyrtocara moori (Blue Dolphin Hap) - also gets big but not as aggressive as the venustus.

Matt
 
C

Courage

Members
Thanks Matt,

1. How will i know if it is a pure breed for the first fish?

2. A lot of people say that any hybrid should be killed, should i do that? Also thanks for confirming the breed of the big Venustus I thought it was one so that is why I didn't ask :)

3. Is it the same for all yellow labs that they could be either female or sub males, or is there a nifty trick to help tell?

4+5. Thanks for the info!
 
dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
1. Probably the most certain answer is to assume that everything without provenance to the wild is not pure. That said, it looks a little strange vs. pics of pure M. estherae I've seen. It's a pretty fish no doubt.

2. It's a personal choice. Firefish are an intentionally hybridized peacock strain...developed to look like what you see. Killing it doesn't really make sense.

3. Mouthfull of eggs = female. Constant badgering and no breeding = 2 dudes.

Good stuff and spread the word of CCA down under :)

Matt
 
C

Courage

Members
thanks again for such a prompt response, i may have 3 males of the yellows... bugger looks like i need to get some more ;)
 
W

WendyFish

Members
I'd encourage you to vent the labs to find out for sure. Both appearance and behavior can be very misleading with them IME.
 
C

Courage

Members
Thanks for the suggestion of venting I never thought of it (saw a video a couple of days ago).

Well I just attempted to vent for the first time and i think that yellow lab is a female... Could someone please confirm (i hope the picture quality is okay).

Thanks

yellow lab 1.jpg

yellow lab 2.jpg
 
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