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Male Kenyi holding the eggs?

1433 Views 13 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  GTZ
I have two African Kenyis in my tank. plus a pictus and pleco, thats all. One of the Kenyis is blue and vibrant, the other was blue and is slowly turning yellow and larger then the blue one with an egg spot. I just noticed today that the one turning yellow has little orangish yellow balls in its mouth, I was thinking they look like the Cichlid pellets I feed them (when they sink they swell up) but i didnt feed them yet. Could these be eggs possibly?
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yes look for abnormal bulging around the mouth but what you described are deff eggs
Ok well if they are eggs then why is the one that looks like a male holding them? I only have two cichlids in this tank and the other one is the vibrant blue with black stripes this one that is holding is losing the blue (very faint) and has a yellow tint with an egg spot.
Are you sure they're kenyis? Could they be saulosi or something else? I have never heard of a male mbuna holding eggs.
Me either I have read up on kenyi and nowhere have I ever heard of that before. The place I bought them from said they were kenyi's. I will take pics when I get home today and post them. Both fo them were the vibrant blue with black stripes when i got them, one is changing and the other is not.

I am not sure if they are even fertilized eggs though.
Saulosi are the other way around, they all start out yellow, and the males change to blue. Should have picked up on that before LOL. :oops: Strange behavior!
Male mbuna do not hold eggs in their mouth. Whoever is holding is a female and they are probably unfertilized unless you have some other males in the tank.
females kenyi will change color to look like a males to claim a terr. so she can hide safely until the eggs hatch but in this case the eggs are not fert.
Now I have a question with all of this being said. Both these kenyis were bought at the same time and were the same size, the one holding is now larger then the other one, dont the males usually grow larger?
yes males normally grow larger. but so do dominate females if there no males around. and like it say only females hold eggs.
Soulpride, how long do the females usually hold unfertilized eggs for?
About a week.
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Just to make sure that my cichlids are actual Kenyi here are some pics of them:

This is the other female:


This is the other female that is holding:

She has a little green and peach in her too.

I am classifying these correctly, right?
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mcontri said:
I am classifying these correctly, right?
Yup!
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