A.PROPHECY Posted April 21, 2007 Report Share Posted April 21, 2007 no sure what i got here just know there spawning lol thort they mite be Melanochromis interruptus http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=758 but probly just hybrids lol anyone kno? heres some piks http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p314 ... CN1384.jpg http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p314 ... CN1383.jpg http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p314 ... CN1368.jpg http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p314 ... CN1378.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted April 21, 2007 Report Share Posted April 21, 2007 They don't look like interruptus to me... possibly some sort of mbuna hybrid. Where did you get them from? Are they privately bred or imports? The reason I am asking is because ages ago there was a shipment of Blue Melanochromis come into the country.. were supposed to be "Blue Johanni" but they were nothing like Johanni, more so look like interruptus Melanochromis hybrid of some sort.. Ryan and Glenn (peanuts) might recall them? They had more of the vertical banding... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.PROPHECY Posted April 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2007 they wer a mixd malawi tank at a lfs they wer totaly differnt to the other fish in ther so i thort id get them so hybrids lol? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanuts Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 From what I have managed to find out, through many hours of reasearching them.... If you look in some early publications you will see the melanochromis johanni pictured as what you have, but with the blue being somewhat darker in appearance and with the vertical barring being very clear. One such book (African Cichlids of Lake Malawi and Tanganyika, by Axelrod and Burgess, fifth edition p238) describes them as a Likoma Island morph. and they are described as being different to what we now accept as a Johanni. So they have been found in the lake. Are they a cross between a johanni/zebra? If they are a hybrid, it does occour in the lake. Does this make them a species? The same publication does not show the Interuptus, so have they been renamed? Is that in fact what they are. I'm buggered if I know, but what I do know is that they are not accepted as a Johanni by the majority of keepers. Importers and retailers do accept them. I have been watching a pair of these colour up in our lfs and they have very clear vertical barring. Is this a classic example of indecision of species or african miss-identification? Who knows, you make your call! They are still beautiful fish so enjoy them. Sorry to ramble on but, this is just my own thoughts. Anyhow welcome to the minefield of african keeping! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 AD Konnings Book on Malawis is a great reference.. There has been rather a few name changes to different African species... the cichlid forum should be pretty much updated with most species. The fish above is definately not Melanochromis johannii Importers and retailers do accept them. Importers and retailers don't have any idea what the fish look like before arrival, they are only sent what they are sent. A few times fish arrived at hubbys work and it has been a case of "that's definately not such and such" so really if a retailer knows it's definately not what they had ordered and weren't sent, then they shouldn't sell it as the species that they ordered and were expecting to get when it is clearly not that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 hmmm well looks like a blue and a gold fish to me? lol Ive seen and even owned a male identical to that one looks to be too many bars to be interuptus but ive never seen one of them in nz.. The lot I have seen that were like that came from the "golden johanni" that came in and the male went blue like that.. And also Glenn had a few similair ones in his tank but not as many bars I dont think. And ive also seen the alexrod book with about 10 different fish some very similair to that pictured being named as johanni, I presume like Glenn that they have since been renamed. All and all who knows really im sure someone who knows more than me will jump on and clear it up... Have you tried cichlid-forum? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishiefishie Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 describes them as a Likoma Island morph. The chances of having a particular morph, of something that is uncommon. For it to be found in a lfs tank marked as mixed malawi.... is so rare. :-? % wise of course I can't give, but I will say that I have never seen it before. I have seen some poor quality johannis over here with vertical barring. Not so many bars though. Me & Brad had a laugh the other day, when Brad first started out he thought johanni & vertical barring was the norm. My guess, very poor quality johanni, or hybrid. asRyan said, place the pics up in the cichlid forum, see what they think. Frenchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.PROPHECY Posted April 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 nar havent tryd a cichlid forum yet probly the next step lol i did a google search once on johanni and some of the pictures that came up wer of these fish lol dnt kno if that helps in any way lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Here are pics of a male Johanni of mine... And here is one of my females holding... she goes overboard with breeding to the point she often needs to be put on her own to fatten up :roll: Usually when the females are in breeding colouration they will form the horizontal line through the body Sorry about the quality of pics... the male Johanni is a bugger to photograph, he's never still enough to get a good pic of... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herefishiefishie Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Big difference between them aye. Makes me lean even more towards hybrid. Frenchy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted April 22, 2007 Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 Yeah there is a big difference aye Frenchy... colour, type etc I also note that A. Prophecy's male is alot deeper in the body.. where as the Johanni are very much bullet shape... almost border on slender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.PROPHECY Posted April 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2007 lol i kno there not johanni! look nothing like them realy anyway im leaning towards hybrids then lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aae1 Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Colouration and body shape of first 2 pics) almost points towards a hybrid with some rainbow auratus in it. Just a thought but Im no expert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aae1 Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Hi there. I meant the first and third pic :oops: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew_W Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Demason's Cichlid? http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_demasoni.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 def not demasoni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew_W Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 Freiberg's Mbuna http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_freiberg.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted April 23, 2007 Report Share Posted April 23, 2007 I dont know about them but think they're got blue males and females.. The shape and yellow female/blue male suggest melanichromis somewhere along the line.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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