Who Gives A Fish Forums

so i've got this bunch of african cichlids from a mate who's breaking down his tank, and i straight away knew the big blue frontosa was one of them, but the rest... no idea, he wasn't too sure either, said he mixed malawis and lake tangs before and they might've cross-bred, so yeah, pics are below, any help identifying these guys would be great, planning on stocking up more and need to know what i'm dealing with.

big blue frontosa (pic)

also got this catfish, weird thing made a squeaking noise when i pulled it out (pic)

bought these next few from someone local, was told they're yellow lab, kenyi, ruti island and misc blue mbuna, but i'm not convinced (pics)

any guesses welcome, sorry for all the pics and poor quality shots

Whoa, those pics loaded fast, I opened the page and was greeted by a huge Frontosa eye staring back at me.

Only ones I'm fairly sure of are the yellow lab and kenyi, and possibly a venustus or livingstonii - some of the others are a bit murky. You've got a mix of haps, mbuna, and fronts, which isn't exactly ideal, I'm sure you're aware.

Think the catfish is a synodontis, those squeaking noises they make are pretty distinctive.

zeniko wrote: ↑Sun Jan 14, 2024 12:50 am Think the catfish is a synodontis, those squeaking noises they make are pretty distinctive.

Don't mean to be a jerk, but just saying Synodontis doesn't really help, does it? I mean, it could be Synodontis euptera, or maybe a young Synodontis resupinata, or even some hybrid. My best guess is euptera, but I'd need a better pic to be sure. Either way, this guy's gonna need some serious hiding spots - lots of caves - to avoid those cichlids during the day.

That 'frontosa' of yours, bigrig22? Not a C.frontosa, if you ask me. I'm pretty sure it's a Cyphotilapia gibberosa - probably from Samazi or Mabilibili. I'm leaning towards Mabilibili, though. Just doesn't have enough stripes to be a C.frontosa.

Those labs, davionix mentioned them, Labidochromis caeruleus - they're mbuna.

Pic 8, I think that's a Korvobochromis livingstonii. Or maybe some other Korvobochromis or Haplochromis - hard to tell.

The rest, I'm not really sure. But I've got a feeling they're all some kind of mbuna. I think I see a bit of it, anyway.

If you're planning on keeping that Korvobochromis or the Cyphotilapia, you'll need a serious tank - nothing under 125g. And I'd advise separating the Mbuna from the carnivores. Feeding those haps a high-protein diet will just cause bloat.

We usually avoid mixing Tanganyika and Malawi, not because they'll hybridize or anything - that's pretty rare - but because they've just got such different personalities.

Yeah managed to identify the catfish as a featherfin, in terms of behavior they all seem to get along just now but will see how that changes when i add more stock.

I was worried about the differences in temperament, but my friend who gave me the fish didn't seem to have many issues and i think he mostly fed them all veg based foods, so fingers crossed that'll help keep the peace.