Cant Identify Species

[Scotty001]

hi all, im fairly new to fish keeping, ive just upgraded my 60l aquarium to a 165l, and ive made a little or big mistake already, ive taken on 2 fish that i have no idea about, silly i know. Can any one help me identify them, they are of the same species, one male and the other female i belive, however i as dont know anything about them cant tell which is which,

the smaller of the two has a part yellow part purple body with top half of the body is yellow then a blck strip from lip to tail and what looks to be a purple belly that comes round to the top of the body breaking the yellow & black stripe, after this purple mark the rear of the fish inc tail is all yellow with the blaak stripe running through it. the top of the lip has a light colour band running over it and just above going from eye to eye is another light band.

the larger one has dark stripe running right across its body, very light marking on its top lip then another light marking going over its head from eye to eye, it has a long dorsal fin that is dark with yellow band and the very tip is black. the dorsal fin gets longer (when stood up) as you get towards the tail, the tail also has a yellow tip that runs halfway round and stops where the dark stripe running through the body stops

Both fish have spent most of their time on the bottom of the aquarium.

i know pictures would be much better to help identify these fish and i will attempt to get some soon as but hopefully some one may recognise these two, also which may be of help is they needed to be bought as a pair and not seperate, and the lfs only seemed to have 1 pair of these fish in a tank, they had several of them all paired in seperate tanks.

the smaller fish i would say is about 1.5" and the larger close to 2" in length.

Many thanks for all help or sugestions.
Scott

 

[xxBarneyxx]

From the description of the dorsal fin it sounds like they may be some kind of cichlid.

Take a look through [URL="http/www.thinkfish.co.uk/fishdata_results.php"]http/www.thinkfish.co.uk/fishdata_results.php[/URL] and see if at least the body shape matches up.

The colouration sounds a bit like a male a female kribensis (the female being the one with the pink belly).

Take a look at [URL="http/www.theaquarians.net/ArticlesandWal...e_kribensis.htm"]http/www.theaquarians.net/ArticlesandWal...e_kribensis.htm[/URL] and http/www.thinkfish.co.uk/fish/Kribensis There are different species with slightly different colouration.

Hard to say without pictures though.

 

[shroob]

I thought krib too.

 

[Scotty001]

Thanks guys !!! this is the fish i was looking for, now i can read up on them and see what i have taken on,

Many thanks for your help.

Scott

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I can give you some basic information from my own experience but definitely have a read up on them as well.

It sounds like you have a male and a female. The female will be the one with the pink belly. If they are getting on ok together then you will have a couple of very nice fish.

They are classed as Dwarf Cichlids and will probably not get a lot bigger then they are now (maybe another half inch to an inch). In my experience they are fairly peaceful to other fish (except when they have young) but they do not do well with other Cichlids (especially other Kribs). If you have a proper pair then you will be ok but make sure you provide lots of hiding places for both of them. If they are not an actual pair you might find that one of them will constantly be chasing the other one around (normally the female chasing out the male). If this happens all the time you might want to think about rehoming one of them.

If you do have a pair though they are fairly easy to breed. They will take over a spot in the tank once they are ready to lay eggs and they will defend this spot to stop any other fish getting near. They will not normally harm any other fish though. Once the eggs hatch and the fry start getting bigger they will be looked after by the parents and "escorted" around the tank (its great seeing a krib with its "kids" taking a swim around the tank).

Kribs are very nice fish and you shouldnt have too many problems.

 

[Scotty001]

Thanks for the info barney, the fish have settled into their new enviroment and showing alot more color now, looks like they are an actual pair, theyve spent most of the time swimming close to each other exploring the tank and have found a secluded spot of their own in one of the logs within the tank. it did have an inhabitant one of the rams but looks like hes now been evicted, moved out and downsized to a smaller cave. theres been no chasing each other about so heres to hoping all goes well, Now to see what to do when she starts laying eggs and i end up with a large amount of fry