One of the suppliers has on his list ' Blue Melanochromis Johannii'

So i assumed these were males but rang him to check and he said no both sexes are blue, all the fish are born blue, so i thought that they were born yellow and he reckons these arent the wild caught ones and have been bred specifically to be blue.

Wouldnt he had to have crossed them with something to get them to all be blue?

Or is it possible to have a pure strain of blue ones?

maybe:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=756

What does everyone else think?

we got some of these in at work VERY nice fish

Wow, awesome if they are something other than the Johanni. Possibly could they be the Purple Mbuna - Melanochromis vermivorus that has come in? We have some here in Hawkes Bay.

Mekhaela D

Still like the Johanni but my Albino Melanochromis are looking good. Picked these guys up from CHCH

the ones Ryan said

Did he say line bred, cross bred??? Asia, local???

Having read up a bit on both & seen some dodgy imports & cross breeds, heres my 2 cents. Line breeding a species to gain a particular trait would take generations or years. The eureka red peacock is an example, came from an otter point jacobfreibergi{I think, from memory}& that was just to get a brighter coloured fish.

What we are talking about here is making a female a whole differnet colour. And when born all born to be a different colour. So if they are local, they wouldn't be in the country long enough to be line bred.

and he reckons these arent the wild caught ones

Someone should tell him most imported cichlids especially if they came through Asia are not wild caught anyway. :roll:

So what are they? My guess is either a cross breed, or a wrongly identified fish. If it has come from asia, wouldn't suprise me, seen it a few times before.

Someone got a pic up.

Frenchy

This is mine Im thinking the Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos as well.

http://s86.photobucket.com/albums/k82/j ... =imgAnch27

I got it from Tropical blues in Tirau I went back about 4 months later and the lady there said it was a Vermavorus.

It's not a Melanochromis vermivorus.

The problem is that Johanni & Maingano look very much the same. Did they have others from the batch still there, or do you know anyone that has brought multiples? Did any change colour as in go yellow/orange like?

Someone may of got some maingano in & people have them confused with johanni. These guys have all stayed blue & people went wow,, a new type of johanni or they could of thought they magically all of a sudden line breed something. :lol:

Ryan is more than likely right. There could be maingano in the country.

Someone buy multiples, if they all stay blue, breed, then there you go.

2fishy, go to the lfs with a photo of a maingano. See how you go & take a photo of the lfs stock for us to look at, or maybe gannet can get a pic for us too. 8)

Frenchy

we got in 3, no change in colour

Could be all males. won't know until they breed, or vent sexed.

Frenchy

your in ozzy, what dose it matter to you any way lol.

yea u r right, but even if that is the case still a kool fish

I know a lady out my ways on here who brought a pair of blue Melanochromis and the female was blue she described them as johanni so thats what I presumed she had until she said the female was the same colour as a johanni male and was holding..

I also purchased a bunch of fish of someone and there was a random female that was also holding no male for it but it was also similair to a johanni male.. Unfortunately I lost that one so didn't get any pics.

So there are similair things floating around my only concern is that people dont know what they are stick them in the same tank as "johanni" as to them they are "blue johanni" and then they all get muddled up or as frenchy has said maybe they're some other cross..

i am the lfs ha, this is a supplier im talking about so i havent actually seen the fish, but they dont sound like johannii.

wasnt keen on getting em in they sounded dodge but mite have to get them in so i can have a look at them, and maybe post a pic on here and see what u guys think.

Hi 2fishy. I have a lfs in Dunedin and recently bought 10 johanni. They're about 6cm and all blue. Not one of them is even hinting on a yellow colour emerging. They are very attractive but are the most aggressive african species out of the 10 or so I currently have. They definately look like johanni but may very well be Maingano

If they are johanni they start off gold and the males go blue.. So either you have something else or a tank full of male johanni

Hubby been in touch with supplier. The Blue Melos are in fact male Johanni, funny actually because I remember awhile ago now they had Blue and Yellow Melos on the list, listed seperately... Blue Melos being the male Johanni and the Yellow/Golds being the female Johanni...

Mekhaela

hey cyberfin I have found my fish to be very aggresive as well pushing around most of the fish in my tank and I think mine is a female. Im pretty sure they are Maingano.

How many do you have jason. Is the agression all directed at each other as in the same species.

Frenchy

I agree with you Jason.

Check out the comments here

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=756

Not hard to confuse the two, aye

hey had a look exactly like what ryan said and she is still holding, very cool looking fish :bounce: :bounce:

oh awesome that is in fact something different to Johanni :lol: , supplier the other day reckoned they were indeed Johanni males (was a little disappointed as I already have a nice colony of those) :lol: , would be good if they knew exactly what they had so people could be sure exactly what is on their list and what to expect before ordering or showing interest in getting some. We didn't get any because of course the thought was Johanni.

The last lot that were on the list a while ago, Blues and Golden Melos were Johanni, so with this lot just being Blue Melos, people would automatically think they are Johanni males available again when instead they are something different.. 8)

Keep us posted anyway!

I wouldn't get to excited yet Afrikan. Any chance of a pic DG?

Frenchy

Just wondering if there was any more feedback on the recent Blue Melo case? Someone said they had a Blue female holding?

Mekhaela

I got some of the blue johanniis in, def not johannii. i rang the supplier who was convinced they were, so i told him to look at a pic and read up about them and he was like errrr um yeah they dont look like johannii and johannii juvis are all yellow. i had to say "I TOLD U SO" :lol: so nows hes trying to find out what they are.

they look the same as another lot of "blue melanochromis" we got in froma diff supplier, so no one really knows what they are.