Crazy color changing fish and more...

[Athena]

Alrighty, here we go again. ;)

I bought these two fish around the same time. They are both supposed to be female Lombardois.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/athenamarie/Lombardois/Lombardois9.jpg

Females? But they look more like a male/female pair right? Wrong... I've actually seen the yellow one holding! I have no idea who she bread with, but I didn't bother stripping her... I knew the fry would be hybrid. Anyhow, they were both blue when I got them, so here's the first mystery... What the heck is this yellow fish? She went through a transition just as a male Lombardoi would. Weird? Here are a couple of pictures of the transition...

http://members.lycos.co.uk/athenamarie/Lombardois/Lombardois5.jpg

http://members.lycos.co.uk/athenamarie/Lombardois/Lombardois13.jpg

http://members.lycos.co.uk/athenamarie/Lombardois/Lombardois14.jpg

Besides having the wrong coloring, her head and face shape seem to be a little off too... Also, doesn't she have too many stripes that are too long? I just don't know... :confused:

Okay, and the second fish...

http://members.lycos.co.uk/athenamarie/Lombardois/Lombardois2.jpg

This one definitely looks more like a female Lombardoi, but again the head and face shape are a bit off, and the stripes are strange... Notice how they don't quite go straight? This could just be off markings, but it really makes me think that she's at the very least not pure... I have a real pair of Lombardois that I know for sure are a male and female pair, and she just doesn't look quite like the other female.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/athenamarie/Lombardois/Lombardois6.jpg

Anyhow, it's not a huge deal, but I'm getting really sick of buying Cichlids and having them surprise me with age. Any thoughts in the matter would be greatly appreciated! :ok:

Thanks so much (again),

Athena

PS Sorry about all the pics, I just thought it might help...

[Karl]

sorry i cant answer your question i dont know much about africans. but im looking stuff up now. And by the way Beautiful fish!

[tom]

We've actually had two discussions about variations of the M. lombardoi he/she/color/eggs phenomenon here.

In the first, which I believe is among those threads accidentally deleted more than a year ago, a member describes four females (he vented them, as I recall), at least two of which had taken on male coloring and one female which had not and was holding eggs--unfertilized, of course, but holding nevertheless.

In the second, another member talks about two lombardoi which produced fry; both had the coloring typical of the adult male. That thread from the top of the year is here: http://cichlidforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=828&highlight=kenyi+female

[truckpoetry]

Yah - that doesn't seem right - here's a pic of what I am pretty certain is my male lombardoi... Something just isn't right about the coloration/stripes and the head shape...

Perhaps I don't have a lombardoi after all?

http://www.truckpoetry.net/fishies/grape_close.jpg

[Athena]

First off I would like to say thank you all very much for your responses, and I'm sorry that I did not respond until now. I've been ill and haven't been going about my day to day life as usual.

I checked out the link that you gave me Tom, and read the entire thread. I too have heard/read about females taking on male coloring while breeding or brooding, but I ruled that out long ago as I knew that my two lone females were doing neither of those things. The transition that this fish took was far later then it would have been had the fish been male, so I was pretty sure that it was female... I just thought maybe I had the species wrong. That confused me though, as these two fish were identical when they were younger.

Now here's where you caught my attention: "...In the prolonged absence of males." I actually wondered that myself quite often. See, these two female Lombardois were bought during a time that I still believed Big Dog was a male Lombardoi... I knew shortly after I bought the girls that we were wrong about Big Dog, but I held onto them because they were so pretty and full of personality. The transition from blue to yellow took and incredibly long time (like at least a year) and I thought a lot that it could possibly be some sort of dominance thing due to the fact that there were no males to lead the pack... So it is done, she appears to be a female Lombardoi after all and will be labeled so from now on.

BUT

That brings me to another question...

I have a male/female Lombardoi pair now that I have bought within the last month. We rarely get Cichlids here so I took the opportunity when I got it. I would say that they are approximately a year old, give or take no more then three months. So far my two new Lombardois and my two old Lombardois have taken little interest in each other. Should I expect them to continue with their original alliances and always ignore each other? Or is there a chance that with time the four of them will eventually become a group?

Thanks again for the help, and I look forward to your responses.

Athena

PS managuenseboy, thank your kind comments, I am blessed to have such gorgeous, healthy fish! truckpoetry, that is definitely a male Lombardoi you have there... 100% sure. :)