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What is this fish

Devin Gibson

CCA Members
Crosshatching?...are you talking about the vertical lines? I know at first I was told he was a Pseudotropheus ...then I thought he was a Melanochromis auratu.....but when I Google the melanchrochromis johhani and it looked like a match
 

chriscoli

Administrator
Most (not all) Mbuna have either vertical or horizontal bars. I see a little of both on this fish. M auratus, M johnnii, and P cyaneorhabdos have horizontal patterning. No vertical barring on any of those.
 

chriscoli

Administrator
So I just checked on cichlidae.com (The Cichlid Room Companion). Very good reference, definitely worth joining. If you join the ACA (American Cichlid Association) access to the Cichlid Room Companion is included in your membership now-a-days.

I was reminded that they were reclassified (along with the cyaneorhabdos) into the genus Pseudotropheus. So they are P. johannii, not M. johannii. In the species description, they only discuss horizontal barring, not vertical. Also, I scanned the pictures there and none show vertical barring.

That being said....what you have may also not be a johannii. I see a LOT of fish labeled Johannii that aren't. I think sometimes people like to call any elongated blue fish with horizontal barring a johannii as a catch-all name.
 

Devin Gibson

CCA Members
So I just checked on cichlidae.com (The Cichlid Room Companion). Very good reference, definitely worth joining. If you join the ACA (American Cichlid Association) access to the Cichlid Room Companion is included in your membership now-a-days.

I was reminded that they were reclassified (along with the cyaneorhabdos) into the genus Pseudotropheus. So they are P. johannii, not M. johannii. In the species description, they only discuss horizontal barring, not vertical. Also, I scanned the pictures there and none show vertical barring.

That being said....what you have may also not be a johannii. I see a LOT of fish labeled Johannii that aren't. I think sometimes people like to call any elongated blue fish with horizontal barring a johannii as a catch-all name.
That sucks because I really like the fish ....would like a few more...even tho he's very alpha.....probable better to keep him solo
 

JLW

CCA Members
It's definitely a hybrid.... It's a pond raised fish out of the far east, probably Singapore, and ... finding a fish that isn't a hybrid out of there can be challenging. :) But... it's a pretty fish, you like it, you enjoy it, what do you care? Just don't release it into Lake Malawi.
 

Devin Gibson

CCA Members
It's definitely a hybrid.... It's a pond raised fish out of the far east, probably Singapore, and ... finding a fish that isn't a hybrid out of there can be challenging. :) But... it's a pretty fish, you like it, you enjoy it, what do you care? Just don't release it into Lake Malawi.
I think if anything its a hybrid mbuna......
 

jonclark96

Past CCA President
As others have said, if you like the fish, keep it! No harm in that. Just be responsible if it happens to breed.
 
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