[azador]

Please help? I can not remember what the guy at our local fish store called this guy when we bought him. I assume it's a male, but have no idea. He is pretty mild in temperment except for when it comes to my Electric Yellow. He chases him relentlessly until the yellow turns black and hides in the corner of the tank. I have also seen the unidentified cichlid do the shake dance in front of the Electric Yellow quite a few times, but I am pretty sure the Yellow is a male?Here "he" is with my asian algae eater. I will post a photo.

 

[azador]

Here is a photo of the guy in question.

 

[Nina_b]

That's a yellow lab alright. Probably a male, jusdging by behaviour, and probably either poorly bred or a hybrid, judging by the stripes.

Can the shaking be agression?

Are you dead sure the otehr yellow lab is a male? This sounds a lot like courtship.

 

[azador]

I'll post a pic of my Yellow lab, maybe someone can tell for sure if it is a male or female. We have 14 other cichlids in the 55gal tank and this hybrid only goes after the yellow lab. Although it never harms it, just keeps it confined to a small corner. If ones male and ones female, should I find some more females to stop the aggression or get rid of the hybrid? Also, we had a dark blue peacock with white spots that looked like stars. Two days ago about six of my biggest fish ganged up on him and beat him to death. My husband caught them in the act, but we were to late to save him. His fins were fine, and he wasn't missing any scales. Could they have just stressed him to death? He had been in the tank for almost a month with no problems and was fine the day before? Thank you for the help!

 

[Nina_b]

Peacocks don't generally do well with mbuna, I've heard. Yep, they can very well have 'stressed him to death', although the actual cause of disease will be something like a bacterial infection or even internal injuries.

About that hybrid... um. Don't let it breed. If you get more females, well, it will breed, creating a horde of stripey brown yellow lab X things. Agressive yellow lab X things, as you've seen. Not good for the hobby, methinks.
Not sure what to do with him, though. Take him to LFS and get a proper yellow lab? Keeping Mbuna in pairs of two is usually a bad idea anyway.

 

[Nina_b]

Judging from your picture that looks rather like a female. It's hard to say with labs they are literally spawning, but less black on the fins than I'd expect on a male. Egg spots don't help much, by and large.

 

[dielikemoviestars]

Judging from your picture that looks rather like a female. It's hard to say with labs they are literally spawning, but less black on the fins than I'd expect on a male. Egg spots don't help much, by and large.

Neither does black on the fins, especially with hybrids.

That is most definitely not a pure yellow lab. The aggression is a large reason why we frown on hybrids.

If a fish is being cornered in a tank, it will soon be beaten and/or dead.

 

[azador]

I have moved my lab into a small tank with a huge comet goldfish. He/She seems much happier at the moment and is not bothering the goldfish. I do not want fry from the hybrid anyhow. He was much prettier when we bought him and although healthy, he is not the most attractive fish anymore. I will probably attempt to take him back to the fish store so I can put my lab back in the community tank. I have about a 50/50 mix of peacocks and mbuna and they do well together. I try to buy only males because I don't want fry, but even the best fish stores can not assure the sex of the fish I buy. Is 15 cichlids too many for a 55 gal? My biggest fish is an albino red zebra, 4in. Planning to upgrade to a 75gal in about two weeks. Thank again for all the info.

 

[24Tropheus]

, but even the best fish stores can not assure the sex of the fish I buy. Is 15 cichlids too many for a 55 gal? My biggest fish is an albino red zebra, 4in. Planning to upgrade to a 75gal in about two weeks. Thank again for all the info.

Yes a good fish shop can vent Malawi cichlids you buy and sell adults and near adults as sexed individuals. And also sell you what you pay for rather than sell you stuff from the hybrid breeders. The prob is finding a fish shop that gives good advice and sells good Malawi Mbuna. :wink: Good luck in your search. Keep looking I guess. :wink:

15 Malawi Mbuna cichlids like real yellow labs and other peaceful small Mbuna is not too much for a 55g hybrids tend to grow bigger but still not a major problem, keeping stuff like goldfish in with em is though.

All the best James

 

[azador]

Thanks, I guess I just need to find a better cichlid supplier. The goldfish with the Lab is only temporary, until we take back the hybrid. All of my fish have been bought as juveniles so that probably explains why no one could positively identify the sex. I have tried to vent them, but just can't tell the difference. My fish probably aren't big enough yet. At least I found out what the unidentified one was.

 

[Rhinox]

Just throwin it out there...

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... php?id=824

Not sure how common they are though. They don't always have to be hybrids... if you look closely at thd pic in the OP, you can see a hint of black in the tail, something not found in labs, even poorly bred or hybrid ones. The black matches the petro tho.

 

[dielikemoviestars]

If there was another photo to confirm, I would say that's actually pretty likely... But there's more black on the pelvics of the OP's fish, and the body of it is more elongated and less stocky. Maybe it's just young?

 

[Nina_b]

There seems to be no black on the op's fish's tail, though. Also, OP's fishy has no black spot on his gill. I hope for their sake it is that fishy, though

 

[azador]

Here are some better quality photos. Sometimes he is bluish, and at other times it's silver and black?
http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m56 ... tos035.jpg
http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m56 ... tos027.jpg
http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m56 ... tos024.png
http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m56 ... tos014.jpg

 

[Rhinox]

Here are some better quality photos. Sometimes he is bluish, and at other times it's silver and black?

what the... wow!

Now thats something I haven't seen before. Let me do some googling. Not sure what you have there. If its a hybrid, I couldn't begin to speculate what cross would have created that.

 

[Nina_b]

it's pretty

I take back my certainty that that's a lab X though. Now I just don't know

 

[azador]

Neither does black on the fins, especially with hybrids.

That is most definitely not a pure yellow lab. The aggression is a large reason why we frown on hybrids.

If a fish is being cornered in a tank, it will soon be beaten and/or dead.

He surely is a pure yellow lab. He was bought from a reputable fish store, the owner breeds some of the fish himself and he always has a tank of only pure Labidochromis caeruleus. He was a juvenile when we bought him (about 3/4", but is now close to 3"). We bought two at the time and one was almost all white/pastel yellow. I believe it was a female, but our blue female crayfish trapped her in her cave with her a couple months ago and ate her.

I'm thinking we should take some photo's of the unknown fish to the same guy we bought him from and he could probably give us the right answer. I put the Lab back in the big tank today and he is now being harrassed by my acei and kenyi, the unknown guy is leaving him alone for now. I rearranged some things and the Lab seems to have found a good hiding spot where the others can't get to him. Thanks to everyone for all the helpful info. I am still a novice with the cichlids, but learning fast.

 

[Rhinox]

I think dielike was referring to the unknown fish not being a pure yellow lab. I didn't think there was ever a question about your known lab pic being pure :thumb:

By the way, I google searched for petrotilapia pics and didn't find anything that looked like the fish you posted, but I strongly feel like your fish is some kind of young petrotilapia variant - either a pure species I haven't found yet, or a hybrid of some kind. Many petrotilapia's show the black band on the dorsal fin and black on the lower fins and tail (if you look very closely at the top and bottom of the tail in the picture you originally posted, you can make out the beginnings of black markings. Its possible the tail will blacken up more at times as he matures or feels more dominant. Something to keep an eye on.

The only "mumbo yellow" picture I have found is the one in the profile here. I was looking for other mumbo yellow pics to see if they ever color up more besides the all yellow, but I didn't find any.

 

[azador]

Thanks Rhinox, I'll keep an eye on him and see if he changes anymore. He is about 3" now, half that size when we bought him. Even if he is a hybrid he is still healthy and otherwise mellow tempered. Now that the Lab has a good hidey hole I think we'll keep Mr.X, whatever he may be.

 

[dielikemoviestars]

I was referring to the one that clearly is not a YL The one that looks like a YL - I agree, that's a pure (and really nice) YL.

Whatever that other guy is, I agree that he's a really neat looking fish.