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surfordie6
10-24-2002, 11:45 AM
I bought these 2 cichlids when they were babies. The mean one, has grown into somewhat large (3-4 inches) yellow and digs holes all over the tank. It's actually turned more of a brownish color now that its older but in the light it gives of the flourecent blue. The body looks _exactly_ like the fish above in the left corner of this forum by the title logo, except mine is yellowish/brown. Oh yeh, it has 3 orange dots on its bottom fin under its tail. Any ideas what kind this is?

The second one is smaller, blue with black tiger stripes, very flourecent in the light too. It gets chased around a _lot_ by the yellow one, but still manages to eat plenty. I also dont know if either one is a male or female. This one only has 1 orange dot under its tail.

You guys know if they might be male or female?

Also I was looking at all your pictures of your tanks.. man what nice tanks. Your water looks so clear! I have a 15g tank with lots of rocks and live plants, about a year old now, and the water just doesnt look as clear even though i clean it once a week. I also have gravel but want to switch to sand at some point.

One more random question, how long do cichlids typically live? Theres so many awsome looking cichilds I'd like to get, but I don't want a second tank. I have these 2 darn giant danios in with the 2 cichilds and they were supposed to be starter fish for the new tank, but they're still alive doing fine. heh

SGypsyMermaid
10-24-2002, 05:06 PM
welcome surf!! do your fish look anything like this?:

http://fins.actwin.com/fresh-pics/kennyi.jpg

surfordie6
10-25-2002, 04:15 PM
omg!!! Thats it! wow!

Yes, the blue one in the pic looks exactly like the small blue one I have. The big yellow one looks just like the fish in the logo for this site but is yellow. Do you know what kind of fish these 2 are and possibly the sex now that u have an image of them?

jonah
10-25-2002, 05:05 PM
Maylandia lombardoi, aka Pseudotropheus kenyii. Males are yellow, females blue (most of the time), sometimes they surprise me.

They're from Lake Malawi, not Lake Tanganyika.

surfordie6
10-28-2002, 07:51 AM
cool! So I assume the blue one is a female then. It makes sense, cuz she's kinda smaller than the other and much more passive. But what about the big yellow one that doesn't have the stripes?

Heres something interesting. I notice sometimes the yellow one will stare at the blue one head on, and they will like "kiss" 2 or 3 times. It's really weird. They fight most of the time, but at these certain times, they seem to kiss and do these weird body movements like the yellow one shaking his body briskly - not sure what thats all about.

SGypsyMermaid
10-28-2002, 09:44 AM
lip-locking and body-shaking are typical of the african lake cichlid mating ritual. kennyi and lombardoi are like the 'rabbits' of lake malawi in my experience. :lol:

jonah
10-28-2002, 04:35 PM
lip-locking and body-shaking are typical of the african lake cichlid mating ritual. kennyi and lombardoi are like the 'rabbits' of lake malawi in my experience. :lol:
I thought kenyii and lombardoi were the same species. Am I totally lost on this one? :confused:

SGypsyMermaid
10-28-2002, 05:34 PM
:oops: they are the same. i meant kenny/lombardoi.