African monster

[SinisterKisses]

Lol this guy is absolutely my FAVORITE mbuna...he's stunning. But he's also a closet monster. He rules the tank and keeps everyone in line, including me! Within the last few months, he's taken to attacking the python when it gets too close to his cave, and he even bit me about a month ago when my hands got too close. I'm not talking a gentle nibble like mbuna do, he flat out BIT me, little brat. Then, tonight when taking photos, I noticed he seemed to get angry at the camera being so close, so I stuck a finger out at him, and this is the result (pics are blurry, dammit :x):

Successfully having defended his territory, he retreats

 

[Big Vine]

Holy crap---you've got lots of finger-biters in your tanks!
Could you do a favor for some of our less-experienced cichlid people, me included, and remind us of what species he is?

How large is he? 10 inches or so?

BV

 

[Guysy1110]

wow, that mouth is huge. i wouldent like my finger sucked by that fishee lmao.

 

[Kephren01]

cool pics!!! i have a fishie like him, he was one of my first ones

 

[GIS Guy]

This a great picture.
Totally love it!
It's unfortunate that it's just a bit blurry.

 

[Katie217]

Haha nice Sinister, My male greshakii did that ALL the time. They are little brats Nice pics too!

 

[Pure]

That's gotta hurt to open his mouth that wide.

 

[VirgoWolf]

LOL Pure.

That's too cute, I love it when the do things like that, my albino oscar flairs at the camera too, but I think he's more showing off than defending because he follows it wherever I move it and jumps in front of hubby's red tiger oscar every time I try to get a pic of him.

 

[Helena21]

wow that is a very big mouth!!!
he looks very agressive

 

[SinisterKisses]

Lol thanks everyone. BV, he's a male Metriaclima greshakei, one of the Lake Malawi mbuna. He's only about 6" actually, and full grown. I guess he's just been in there long enough and been KING long enough to be fearless, lol.

GIS guy, I was so angry that the pics turned out blurry, lol. But I'm sure he'll do it next time too, so I'll just keep harassing him until I get a good one

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Very nice. Love that blue hue on his anal fin. Great colors all around though, thats a nice fish!

 

[SinisterKisses]

Thanks...he's always popular when I post pics of him up. I hate to toot my own horn, so to speak, but he's the nicest greshakei I've ever seen And I bought him from an LFS where he was labeled as an aurora...good thing I knew what I was really buying

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Gorgeous. Love the open mouth shot

 

[echoofformless]

Wow I'm nervous - i have three saulosi juveniles in my tank with acei and yellow labs. Will they get beat up when everyone is an adult?

 

[SinisterKisses]

lol huh? We're talking about saulosi?

No, they won't get beat up, they should be fine.

 

[Katie217]

Lol thread hijack much?
Anyways,
lookin at those pics...makes me reallllllly miss my old greshakii...aww...