General African Cichlid Discussion • Baffled

[Ceejai7]

Hi again everyone,
As stated in my 1st post, I am new to the Cichlid keeping hobby. I started off with a Red Zebra over 3 years ago and always thought it was a "he". It was sold to me as a male. I have recently added new Mbunas to the tank and just noticed earlier today that its throat was bulging and it seemed to have a hard time keeping its mouth shut. I looked at pictures of RZ holding and it was identical to how my fish looked. I did water changes on my tanks, looked again and the RZ looked back to normal. No pocket or bulge in the throat area. I inspected the tank and have not seen anything. I assumed the eggs or fry were eaten. I just looked in the tank and AGAIN, the bulge is back and the fish seems as if it cannot keep its mouth shut completely. I cannot figure out what is going on.

My 15 year old was getting upset with me a couple of weeks ago because I was not paying him much attention when he was telling me he thought there was something wrong with the RZ. He described it as its gills moving a lot. I thought the fish looked fine and was not behaving differently so I discounted what he said. Now, I wonder if maybe the fish was holding back then. I will post a pic that I took earlier today after I figure out the simplest way to do so

[Ceejai7]

Here are the pictures I took earlier:

[brinkles]

That looks like a holding fish, but some of mine will hold food in their mouths like a holding fish for a few minutes after I feed them. They'll sometimes move their mouth like they are "chewing gum" when they have eggs, because they need to move water over them.

[Ceejai7]

Any ideas for why it looked like it was holding earlier, then looked completely normal a little while later and then went back to looking like it was holding? Do you think it could be holding food and not eggs or fry at all?

[Ceejai7]

Ok, I think this fish just holds food because I looked at it just now and it is again, back to normal

[DJRansome]

I do have some males that look like they are holding after they gobbled up every pellet that would fit in their mouths.

[Ceejai7]

I think I will go back to my assumption that this is a male. It tries to dominate others somewhat and does a little chasing. It only has one egg spot but I know that the number of egg spots in itself is not reliable

[Fogelhund]

The fish pictured doesn't look like a Red Zebra btw... looks like one of those all yellow zebras, that is actually a zebra x lab hybrid.

[Ceejai7]

I will try to post a better picture. It looks yellow in this picture but is not. It is Orange and will sometimes have blue tinged fins. I have also seen it display almost a black shading on its sides

[Ceejai7]

Here is a better picture of the Red Zebra. I have always believed it was a male due to the color change...its fins darken and sometimes its sides do, as well (not at all in this picture, though)

[Fogelhund]

Still doesn't look like a red zebra to me, and I'm not just talking about the colour, it's shape isn't right.

[NickosW]

female johanni?

[Michael_M]

Kind of looks like red zeb x msobo that I saw in a store once.

[Ceejai7]

Thank you for all of your input. Since I am still somewhat ignorant when it comes to these fish, can you please point out to me what is different about my fish's body from Red Zebras? And any ideas of sex? It is fully mature as I have had it for over 3 years. Thank you again:)

[brinkles]

I would expect her face to be less rounded if she was a pure red zebra, especially at her age. Does she ever show any stripes?