Subj : Still Trying To ID My Fish To : All From : Jeff Snyder Date : Sun Jul 05 2009 03:06 pm As I've mentioned before, after exchanging messages with a number of other fish hobbyists on a number of fish-related messageboards, it seems that the list of possible ID's for my five mbunas has expanded to the following species: Melanochromis Johanni Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos Pseudotropheus Msobo Pseudotropheus Elongatus A few other species have been mentioned to me, but the above list seems to be the ones that have been most often suggested. Whether or not my fish are actually a pure strain of any of the above-noted species is debatable. Quite a few people have now suggested that they are probably hybrids. Well, I've been pondering this issue for some time now; and I've come to realize that perhaps my mistake has been to assume that my fish are all of the same species. I had reasoned that they didn't all look exactly the same simply due to different color variations of the same species, or possibly due to sexual differences; however, now I am not so certain that this is the case. In fact, the very fact that they were sold in a tank simply labeled as "Cichlids", certainly seems to add to the possibility that I actually have more than one species of African cichlid, which were all being sold in a mixed tank. As I have mentioned before, LFS owners will often order mixed bags of cichlids, because they are cheaper to purchase that way. I have been hoping to take more pictures of my mbunas for everyone to see -- and thus help with their identification -- but that has proven to be a bit difficult due to the time that these fish lurk in the rocks. And I have missed some fabulous photo opportunities. For example, earlier this morning, Bully Boy -- my dominant male -- was sparring with subdominant male #1, who I have now named "Usurper", because he recently grabbed some of Bully Boy's territory. Anyway, for a few brief seconds, these two handsome-looking fish were right out under the light together as they sparred, and their colors were magnificent -- but I missed it! Darn! Maybe next time! :) Anyway, if you want to see the pics that I have already taken, well, I guess you will just have to visit TheFishGuy Messageboard. Google it with the terms "thefishguy messageboard". :) Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files. We Use Hermes II --- Hermes Web Tosser 1.1 * Origin: Armageddon BBS -- Guam, Mariana Islands (1:345/3777.0) .