African Cichlid ID's (all of them)

Sergeant 1st Class Posts : 209

My friend called me about this add thinking I'd be interested in them. I just might be but need to know what they are first. The add just says hybrid cichlids. I see a blood parrot, that's about as far as my knowlege goes... Can someone please help ID these guys. The ones that catch my eye are the large ones with the circular spots.
http://springfield.craigslist.org/pet/2446327796.html

First Lieutenant Posts : 635 Location : Cancun Mexico

the large spotted one are venutus

Subject: Re: African Cichlid ID's (all of them) 6/17/2011, 9:55 pm

Yeah the venustus is about the only thing I can Id from that video.

Subject: Re: African Cichlid ID's (all of them) 6/18/2011, 2:52 am

I see the parrot and the venestus. The blue one on the right looks like a blue ahli hybrid. A few red zebras, a maingano swims by when the camera goes left, and there seem to be lots of mixed females, maybe a couple red empress mix females as well. I wouldn't say this is a stellar stock, but to each his own, as long as the offspring aren't being distributed.

I wouldn't recommend this group and find a certain grouping of fish you really like. Just MHO...

Sergeant 1st Class Posts : 209

Thank you all for helping me with the id's. And thank you Dabula for your honest opinion. That helped me make my decision not to get any of them. It was fun for a moment to look into getting fish I hadn't owned before.

Subject: Re: African Cichlid ID's (all of them) 6/18/2011, 9:31 am

The blue one looks like a haplochromis ahli. There seems to be alot of zebras in there, too.

Subject: Re: African Cichlid ID's (all of them) 6/18/2011, 10:13 am

Good decision

Subject: Re: African Cichlid ID's (all of them) 6/18/2011, 3:18 pm

Subject: Looks Like... 7/17/2011, 7:53 am

Looks like there may be a few juvenile M. Auratus Cichlids in this tank. I have one of these, which came with an aquarium I purchased and what I can tell you about them is this:

If there are males, which there look to be in this tank, then you are looking at some very aggressive fish! My M. Auratus is crazy and I now know he is most certainly a he (as he is sexually dimorphic by his coloration). He started off with a bit of yellow lining his fins and a very beautiful bluish-purple color with dark, horizontal lines. He is now maturing and has turned mostly brown; a very deep brown throughout his lines. I have to say he is the most aggressive cichlid I have ever owned. I can house him with a few other species, however, if I were to place a female of his sub-species in the tank with him he would go about killing every other male in there and possibly even the females of the other sub-species. These guys grow to about 5 inches and are very territorial once they reach maturation. I truly would like to trade mine or sell him because I tend to lean more toward the less aggressive cichlids. Don't get me wrong, he is very pretty and he is a hoot to watch, as I swear he is ADHD--he swims from top to bottom of his tank constantly and I do mean non-stop. He has a follower now, which is hilarious--she is a red zebra and she has taken to swimming in the same patterns he does; however, at times they swim in opposite directions and this causes many crashes! I have seen them accidentally slam into each other on several occasions, but once the crash is over they simply go about their business of swimming like lunatics again. I am certain he is in excellent cardio health because no fish could swim as fast and as crazy as he does without having a heart attack if they had the slightest ailment.

I would advise you to be careful on these fish since you are not certain what each of them are, except the Parrot Cichlid. Once all of these fish reach maturity you may have a major war and territory dispute on your hands. Truly, "Rick" (I named him after my husband--but we won't go into that) should have a tank of his own and I am actually in the process of procuring one for him because he can do some serious damage to my other little guys and gals and I am afraid the older he gets the worse he will be. Good luck should you acquire all of these fish!

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