Here are some shots from today. Tried a new lighting scheme, and it seems to have payed off... Grin







Thanks for looking!
_________________
Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eig

Really nice shots! And fish!! the Clap

Thanks! Bouncy

Very nice! I wish I could do that! I'm jealous Boo Hooo

They look great, almo!

How big are yours? Are they breeding yet?

My males are about 3 1/2 inches, females almost 3 inches, and they go through the motions, but no sign of a real spawn yet!

It's certainly not for lack of trying on the males' part, though! :D

Kim

Hey Kim,

They are about the same size as yours. There have been a LOT of motions lately, but no fry yet. I'm keeping my eyes open for more, because I only have the one pair at this time.


Thanks!

I'd like to have more females, as well, almo...I have two pairs, separated in two different tanks, because the males were just bent on killing each other. This will actually be a spawn I get excited about, if we keep them long enough for it to happen!

They really seem to take awhile to grow out, though! We got these at 1 1/2 inches last November! I just know my fuelleborni grew and matured faster than this!

Yours are absolutely gorgeous...My males show nice colouring, but I can't get a good pic.

Kim

Incredible pics of a very difficult fish to photograph
for us Point and Shooters!

If possible, could you post a pic of your female?

I have a male that is about 4" long now, and recently
I purchased a what I thought was a female.

She is completely orange, but the male looks like yours.

Do I have a different variant?

What do the females look like?

Awesome shots! B)

preacherboy, I think the bottom pic IS almo's female, if I'm not mistaken.

My females are kind of orange, actually I would call it more of a sand colour, and they are OB.

We've had alot of confusion over this variant or locale...almo and another person on CF had blue females, and I really like the looks of them, but I've tried and tried and can't seem to confirm that the females should be anything other than OB.

I don't really care for the OB, they aren't as nice looking, and would love to have a solid colour female if I knew that it was okay for breeding.

Kim

Thanks Kim!

Now allow me to further muddy the water up a bit! :blink:

I bought another male last night; he is dark blue,
he has vetical black barring and his dorsal fin is red. :D

My female is almost solid orange with only one black
splotch on her side. Most of the females I have ever
seen are this orange or OB pattern.

That's why Almo's female, which I thought was the last
picture, is still confusing me! dumb dumb

Maybe Larry could straighten me out! Now this should be good! Help! Now this should be good!

Sounds like your new male is a red top...Trewavasae or fuelleborni? (I'm just asking cause some of the LFS around here don't seem to know the difference...) I do know that the red top fuelleborni males have OB females, too. Not sure about the trewavasae...

I asked Larry about the Mpanga trewavasae earlier, and he only knew of the sand coloured females, like I have.

He's still having some problems accessing the site, but maybe he will find his way in here and straighten us all out!

Kim

Then I must have bought the Labeotropheus Trewasee
Red Top male.

So what do you call what we have Kim?

OOOOOOOOOH I'm in LOOOOOOVE! Drooly

Which ones?

Steph, I'm sure Darius has some of the Mpanga Reds, or you can wait for mine to spawn and I should have plenty. I have the two pair seperated now, and I think they will spawn soon.

Kim

Kim, at this point, I too confused to follow the thread!

But from what I think I have is two different males.

I have a male seen in Almo's pics, the Mpanga Reds.

I also have a male that must be the Lab. Trawassee Red Top.

My females are OB! The female was what I was wondering about
because neither one of the males are remotely interested in the
female!

Sorry about the confusion.

Oh, this is definitely a thread for Larry to come in and clean up!

And just to add to your confusion, I don't know anything about red top L. trewavasae, but have kept red top L. fuelleborni. Their females are OB.

I'm gonna pm this link to Larry and tell him to throw us a life jacket or something!

Kim

Hi Gang,there are a lot of fish from the Chilumba area that have this red appearance to them,,,some have more and some have less.The key here is to know exactly were they come from,so you know what to ask for, and know what you are getting.

These ones come from Luwino reef near Chilumba Port.
(pics from Stuart Grants Web site,FISH of the MONTH section)
Stuart also adds this note

These ones are from Chesese.
Stuart adds this note

The ones you people have are similar to this,they all come from the same area.Althought the first set of pic's shows the more red on the belly than the other.
I was confused with all this "Mphanga Red" talk,the Trewavasae at Mphanga Rocks are more bluer than any other color,,,well at least the ones I observed.
Konings CD confirms that,,,and you could save a lot of time if you had this CD.
Again you have to trust who you get fish from as we all can check pics in books and come up with a fairly acurate location of where the males come from but the females only have a few color options and these are found lake wide.
Females are orange,light orange,orange blotch (varying sixe of blotchs depending on locations) ,different shades of blue,,,,sometimes showing (Faint) markings of male coloration which would be specific to that location,and ground sand/biege color (drab).
So,while males could be mixed in an all male tank and then seperated easily females could not!
This is exactly the same thinking as mixing female Aulonocara!
You just don't do that!

Was this helpful,,,or are you REALLY confused now! On the Floor Laughing

Oh yes,,,,great pics Almo,and very nice fish!

Cheers!!! Larry 4larry

Huh??? idunno

Clear as mud, Larry, clear as mud... :D

Mine came from Darius' wild caught pair. He called them "Mpanga Reds", and I do find my boys to be more blue than anything, the red shows up when they are excited, and the blue brightens right up to an almost "glowing" colour, being lightest in the finnage and tail. The face darkens, and barring shows on it. (The boys get excited alot - I think they are going through puberty right now...) Females are sand colour, with very Faint very tiny blotches, but not many. I do believe there are strong differences in my fish and almo's fish, yet we both think they are Mpanga Reds. (Mpanga or Mphanga??? I see it spelled both ways...)

So, basically, what this all comes down to is if you aren't confident on what you've got, and that you have a true pair from the same locale, you shouldn't breed them???

What variant would the blue/grey females be like what almo has? Or is that impossible to pinpoint now?

And, I'm even more confused over the notation from Stuart regarding the Chesese...I always thought trewavasae were more slender than fuelleborni...

This is making my head spin... roll eyes

Kim

Mphanga is the right spelling,the 'H' is silent so its often missed.
Yes,confused! On the Floor Laughing
Here's one for ya,,,,,,,,,,,,,my Ps.elongatus "mphanga" are not really from Mphanga Rocks! The ones at that location do NOT have the yellow in the caudel fin,,,they come from Katale Island!
If the little buggers would'nt swim so fast I would have the darn pics to prove it,,,but the old Sony point and shoot just wouldn't catch them.
So we go with what the name that referrs to what we have already been calling them.
Now that's confusing.
If I asked for Katale Elongatus ,,,that's what I would want! But even Stuart,without asking would in most cases ship the right fish,even he calls the Mpanga Elnogatus.
OK Mphanga Rocks, Luwino Reef and Katale Island are only about 200 yards apart! But the color of the individual fish are different,,,,these three area's are surrounded by DEEP water that Rock dwellers cannot cross.
I know you have Konings Back To Nature Book 2,so go to the back,to the map and check out how close these Islands and Reefs are,AND to give you an idea of what you are looking at Mphanga Rocks to Katale Island is only 400 yards! (tops!) So compare that to the other locations and you can see how easy it is to get fish confused,,,,Hell the fish Haven't even read Ad Konings books,how would they know On the Floor Laughing

Sunligt pics Stuart has shown are pretty darn good,but the fish we look at every day are swimming in our tanks,so these ones shown are really fabulous!
IMO

In almost all area's of the lake there is some cross over and similar species at the same location,,,I guess what he is referring to is the more larger bodied fish rather than the thinner one (the thinner one probably is not as nice and the divers need to know what he's talking about so this is a statement is made to keep things clear in the divers mind,,,yes it sounds confusing,but I added that because Stuart added it)
Basically he's calling the larger one Fuelleborni only because its bigger than the other one.

Cheers,Larry