African cichlid id

[Spitfire]

Hey everyone...

I'm new to African cichlids and I was wondering if you could help me to identify a fish I bought.
I bought the fish out of a tank with mixed Africans and mbunas. They are about 1.5-2 inches long right now and are fairly elongate with the head bigger in width than the body. The eyes are also large in proportion to the head and larger than a similar sized mbuna. The snout is blunt and rounded and the mouth is in front of the eye and rather small. The fish is light brown with 9-10 narrow dark bands starting from the gills to the caudal peduncle. There is a yellowish wash on the upper head and a bluish wash on the lower head. The eye is dark blue to dark brown. The anal and ventral fins are orange in all specimens. The pelvic fin is orange with a white anterior edge. The tail is clear with a little orange wash on the lower part. Depending on the specimen the dorsal fin is opaque with either a bluish or yellowish wash on the fin. The posterior end of the dorsal has orange speckles. There is an electric blue edging on the dorsal fin margin. The fin itself has an obvious spiny portion and soft area and the pelvic fin is long . Depending on the specimen /sex? the fish is either very dark or very pale. The pale specimens look like they have a purplish cast on the bands while the dark specimens are almost black with very obvious bands of dark and pale.
The fish itself is very peaceful. I have four in the tank and they get along rather well. They seem to stay in the midwater layer and do not inhabit the rockwork. I hope this info helps to identify this species, I've looked online for it with no luck and the pet store guy didnt know the name...

Thanks

Ray

[SGypsyMermaid]

welcome ray--you've got me stumped! sounds like one gorgeous fish, though. any chance of a pic? maybe one of the other forum members will figure it out. your description is certainly detailed enough, but i'm just not getting it. good luck.

[Spitfire]

Yeah the fish is an attractive fish but the colors are more subtle than you are thinking. From a few feet away they look tan with dark bands and orange ventrals. Some have a darkish cast to the fins and head. They have big heads and narrow down the body. The tail has a slight fork to it, or lunate, as they call it :D

Yeah its a good description, but hey I'm a marine science major :lol:


Ray

[Spitfire]

Sorry, idont have a digital camera.... so no pics...

The bands are vertical by the way, from dorsal to ventral.


Ray

[SGypsyMermaid]

try looking at some galleries of photos of lake cichlids to see if you can pin down the lake, genus, or something...

http://perso.club-internet.fr/burnel/galerie.htm

http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/cichlidrecipe/crp14.htm

http://www.vatoelvis.com/Malawi.html

http://malawicichlids.com/index.htm

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~gregure/cicgal.htm

[Spitfire]

<img src="http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/cichlidrecipe/crecimage/aulonocara14.jpg">

It resembles this species but has a larger eye, a shorter anal fin, a larger head, a more rounded and smaller tail, and a tan undercolor. Still havent found a real match in those sites...


Ray

[SGypsyMermaid]

ok, well, that means that it is probably a lake malawi hap of some kind. your photo looks like some type of aulonacara(peacock).

[Spitfire]

Update: I asked the person at the store I bought them and he said that the fish was a Lake Victoria haplo. I don't agree with him since all the Victorian haplos in pics are brilliantly colored fish. Can there be ones with muted coloration or are the females drab?

It still looks like the Aulonocara carolae in that pic above in my opinion. It has a torpedo shaped body with a head kind of like a shell-dweller with the big eyes(more than half the head height). All the fins are rounded though and the fish is small(2 inches) and it has 9-10 bars, not 7 as in the Aulonocara.

This is driving me crazy! I wish i knew at least the lake or genus so I could find out how to care for these fish/and their temperment/habits

Ray

[Spitfire]

http://cichlidewebseb.chez.tiscali.fr/fiches/aulojaco/seb00541.jpg

This is also A. carolae. It has the general characteristics of my fish but the colors are much more vibrant on this fish. Plus the fins are too pointy. All the fish in the store tank were identical so I know that I didnt just buy one sex.

Ray

[SGypsyMermaid]

most female vics are drab, though some of them have a little color--usually in the fins. most vics have a black lachrymal stripe(stripe which passes thru the eye, diagonally, in most if not all cases.? it can be faint in juvenile fish. like most lake cichlids, the juvenile fish have female coloration, so you don't necessarily have all females--males may color up later. so maybe we're dealing with a lake victoria hap, but i still don't know what they are.