Johanni / Melanochromis Maingano / Tropheops Chilumba

[malawiman]

I bought some juvenile Johanni from a reputable shop. They were orange/yellow in colour and not sexable at that size. They looked like Johanni and within a month some started colouring up to blue. It soon became apparent the barring on the males were vertical and not horizontal.

These fish are breeding true and after heaps of investigation I found them to be Tropheus Chilumba. There must have been a mix up when shipped to NZ and now we have a new species. Please take care not to mix these fish with Johanni or Maingano as they will interbreed.

Last year more "Johanni" was sold and male and females were blue, which is not the case with Johanni. As most of us know it is not Johanni, but Melanochromis Maingano.

I have seen some bright orange "Johanni" in shops lately. I don't have any of the Maingano or Johanni. Did anyone buy some of the latest Johanni and is so do they look like the real thing. Have the males changed colour and have vertical barring?

A lot of confusion is caused by human error, but if we take put some effort in to ID our fish we might find we have far more species than we think. Not all fish we think might be hybrids are.

Please take some time and Google the 3 different species. Johanni males and Maingano male/ females look similar. Johanni and Tropheops Chilumba juveniles look similar.

[A.PROPHECY]

Tropheops have been on the list and still are the shop would of just labeld them wrong

[malawiman]

Is Mel Maingano on the list? If Tropheops are imported they should try and get the correct name. There are heaps of different Tropheops out there.

I'm not blaming anyone, I personally think they probably came in as Johanni, when small they look similar to Tropheops. I did talk to owner at the shop I bought them from and he got it from supplier as Johanni. He did not have any Tropheops at that stage.

They sold the Maingano as Johanni, if someone bought those later buy some Tropheops or real Johanni and mix them we will have hybrids soon. My point is to warn people to make sure they got what they bought and not mix them.

[ryanjury]

Yeah I have heard that they are in the country Mekhaela was telling me she had some when I talked to her last..

I know where your coming from but it is very very hard to id fish just from pics on the internet and pays for people to stick with the names that come with the fish, alot of dodgy melo's have come in under random names and because the males are all very similair there could have been a cross there that wasn't picked up and is hard to id for. I have some johannii here I got from Mekhaela and they look good I have bred a few generations from them and all come out the same, I have been staying away from the melo's on the list due to the random "blue melo's" "golden johannii" and others coming through just doing random stuff who knows what they actually are personally I think its exporters getting a load of random crap most other countries wont accept and sending it to one of their smaller customers who wont complain..

[firenzenz]

And they arrive in such low numbers into a what is by world standards a very small market that in a very short time you have- KaKa!

[A.PROPHECY]

ps Tropheops on the list i asume its what your talking about with out looking at a picture tho so correct me if im wrong

got some in last year

and still on the list ill get some in next week and get some piks for ya

[malawiman]

Yep, that is the one, but there are lots of different ones. I have the Chilumba. Found the same ones in Ad Konings book and they are the same as my " Johanni" I bought. :evil:

[Navarre]

Pics any one?

Navarre

[Afrikan]

I will post a pic of our Tropheops that we purchased. They are very much Ps. tropheops. There is no comparison between the Ps tropehops and the Melonochromis family, totally different looking fish.

I had Johanni that were here in the country for years... the true Johanni, I won't touch any so called Johanni that come into the country now days, too dodgy for my liking with what the suppliers send.