Identify this cichlid!

[CatKittyFish]

Okay so I was a bad girl and went to the fish store and got some fishies!*twirlysmi Had to get some danios and albino corys...came home with them plus these little cichlids I just fell in love with, a silly little cat fish that is adorible, and some mollies. (put the mollies in the 20 gallon) So the people at the store told me they where some kind of shell dwelling cichlid...I got excited cause I am already set up for that. I asked if they would get along okay with the multis I'm gonna get in a few months(waiting for the breeder*SLEEPING*) and they said yes. So! Long story short, I asked them to write down the name for me so I could look up the care for them, was given; T. Moorii Flame R. . I have some to the conclusion that that is NOT what these are...since I can't fine this specific name and the only thing that comes close has a nice orange stripe down the center. So here is a pic...any ideas?*SUNSMILE*

 

[bassbonediva]

No idea on the cichlids, but the catfish looks like a juvenile featherfin catfish. Be aware that this fish will outgrow ALL the tanks you have...combined.

 

[CatKittyFish]

thats no big deal...I just thought he was cute...I can always get a bigger tank lol

 

[OrangeCones]

The cichlid looks like Tropheus duboisi to me. This article explains their care:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/t_duboisi.php

You need a huge tank for them (75 gallons for a group) and they need kept in large groups, not one or two individuals. As far as getting long with your multies, I would suspect they will not.

The juvies have the spots, as they age, those are lost. They are mouthbrooders that should be kept in a ration of 1M/3F to spread out the aggression.

 

[bassbonediva]

thats no big deal...I just thought he was cute...I can always get a bigger tank lol

Look into getting something AT LEAST 3 feet long (like a 40 gallon breeder), with bigger being better. I have mine in a 55gal and he's still fairly young, even though he's almost 6" long. He's still got his juvenile/sub-adult patterning like your little one does. He'll eventually hit around 8" or so. Also, keep in mind that you will hardly ever see him except when the lights go out. I only see mine every once in a while when the lights are on, but that's because of the way my tank is set up (not many places for a fish his size to hide well). He does like to come out during feeding time and his favorite food is by far the sinking shrimp pellets I feed my bottom feeders (cories, ghost shrimp, etc). Another thing to keep in mind is that as these fish grow, they can become fairly territorial and aggressive. I have a friend who had one in his 55gal for a while and it started attacking any fish smaller than itself (which was pretty much every fish in the tank except his angelfish pair). For this reason, it isn't generally recommended for them to be kept in tanks with smaller fish once they reach maturity. Mine will be moving into an African cichlid tank once I move to Washington.

 

[aakaakaak]

Rule #1: LFS SALESPEOPLE LIE!
Rule #2: A responsible fishkeeper you are not, until you can master the urge of the impulse buy

 

[CatKittyFish]

okay, so I got this figured out now. Thanks for your posts. Upon idenetifying said fishies, I called the LFS and told them not only about my poor cx service I experienced there but what happened with the fish. On that note, this can hardly be called an impulse buy as that is something you do without thinking first. Not only did I annoy the crap out of these people asking questions about the "supposed" breed or fish I was getting, as well as getting the name so I could do follow up research, would make this not buying on impulse. Impulse would be "oh a cute fish!" takng it home and after 6 months wondering why its outgrown your tank. So I am returning said fishies for a full store credit, no harm done. Even though I would love to keep them, I really dont have the space for them at this moment. So I am just back to waiting for my multis agian.

 

[CatKittyFish]

just an after thought. Tropheus duboisi - description says juvinials are jet black with white spots. These more look more like baby jack damseys kinda...they have shiny blue spots

 

[nanu156]

I don't think that is the tropheous cones says it is. There are actually 2 cichlids in that bag, 2 different cichlids.

The first one is lake malowi something out of the Elongatus family. They are SUPER DUPER MEAN AS HECK and need to be kept with similar.

If it is in fact out of the troupheous groups you can keep one or a large group, but again they are mean as hell. They are also entirely intolerant of meaty foods so your entire tank needs a veggie only diet. (specialized food, you have to find spirilina flakes, or veggie flakes, the regular mixed stuff will give them bloat and they will die)

The second one.... has pearly spots, these are not indicative of African malowi fish... African river fish (jewels) and south Americans generally have these opalescent dots. Bad news on that front is they get big and are MEAN MEAN MEAN they are also not compatible in the least with anything other than south American/central American cichlids.

I could be more specific with better photos. They both need re-homed ASAP.

That catfish is also entirely inappropriate for your tank sizes, anything you are currently housing, etc etc.

return that trio

 

[CatKittyFish]

done, returned everyone the other day

 

[Fishman1995]

After thought being i just read this, to repsond to cammy, not a jack Dempsey for sure in the second, ive had baby jack's. Much much much different looking, less....spotty LOL. Both are African something, neither are South American because ive did research out the ying yang on SA's. SA's tend to be less spotty IME. Id also vote both look more Tanganiyan than Malawi, just my thoughts, i could be wrong.

 

[nanu156]

Jacks are South american, and that fish with the reflective spots is definitely SA/CA chichlid. The only "African" (who is a river fish not a lake fish btw) I can think of with the reflective spots are the Jewels that fish has the wrong shape to be a Jewel. BTW the Jewels look, breed and act like south Americans.

In any event both are inappropriate for your tank.

(FM love ya to death but you are dead wrong here, Africans don't have the pearly scales or reflective "spots" a few have a single reflective spot just behind the gill but again it is not nearly as reflective as that fish is)

google image south American cichlid and look at how many of them have the spots (Texas, flowerhorn, threadfins, Red Festae, Jack Dempsy, etc etc etc) the reflective scales are actually an indicator that it is south American.

 

[CatKittyFish]

I didn't know that abOut reflective scales...interesting. On that note I was just comparing the fish to a jack...not saying they are jacks I'm going back to the fish store to get some plants and I'm going to try to find out what the manager who seems to know fish thinks they are. Will keep u posted

 

[nanu156]

yeah, I can't stress enough you NEED to return them, you have 0 tanks that are acceptable, they can't be kept together either... so it's not like you cuold start a cichlid tank and keep both, if you started 2 cichlid tanks (55g each) you cuold do that... but.....