Why The Change? (pics)

[denis coghlan]

I recently bought three Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Yellowtails" for my new malwai setup. one male and two females (I Hope). The fish are still fairly small about 1.5 inchs. About two days after I introduced the fish into the tank, one of the females started to develope yellow markings on the top of its head and the other has not.

If anyone has experience with Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Yellowtail" can they let me know what this means and is it normal.

Maybe the fish is male and not female?
Maybe the fish is a hibrid? (fish came from a reliable source)


Pic one is the female on the first day in the tank

Pic two is the female three days later (today) note the yellow markings on the head

tanks

 

[SamUK]

can mean a few things.

fish feels more comfortable, there normally pale/lose there colours when there stressed.


or which ever fish establishes itself as the boss often has brighter colours.


third option is they jus feel like it lol.

this is a fish i bought (the black one).

this is him 2 weeks later.

took him a couple of days to reach that colour too and hes stayed the same since.

 

[freddyk]

This species should have dark blue striping and I get the feeling it might not be a pure yellowtail, though with time maybe the rest of the color will develop. The cichlid in the above post is a Hap, S. Fryeri, and like most Haps they do start off brown and the males turn blue.

 

[denis coghlan]

This species should have dark blue striping and I get the feeling it might not be a pure yellowtail, though with time maybe the rest of the color will develop. The cichlid in the above post is a Hap, S. Fryeri, and like most Haps they do start off brown and the males turn blue.

I have looked on several cichlid and tropical fish sites trying to find a pic of a female yellowtail. Not a young or a mature female inparticular, just any type of picture of a female!! I dont really have an idea of what they are "ment" to look like. When I bought the fish, the guys in the LFS said that both the two females and the male came from the same parent source (this is what the LFS said or they could have ment that they came in the same shipment). The male (see pic below) looks how he is ment to look for being a "yellowtail". So I can only hope like you said "with time the rest of the colour will develop".

P.s. If anyone has an adult or young female yellowtail in their tank, could they take a qucik snap of it and put it in this post, or even easier if someone knows of a picture or a written discription online can they post the link.

tank you both for your input so far

 

[mark7616]

i want some of them but cant get them

 

[denis coghlan]

Ok I have just cracked something!! MY LFS told me a big fat fatty of a porker! The Fish I have are not Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Yellowtail" they are in fact Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Mpanga". When you put the two species beside each other in a line up there is very little diffrence. But if you notice the anal fin is two tone in the mpanga while in the yellowtail it is just one colour. Also the end of the dorsal fin in yellow in the mpange and the majority of the tail is also yellow. Looks like I have three mpanga, this done not change my opinion of them as I still think they "mbuna".

See for your self!!!!

This is my fish

This is a Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Yellowtail"

and this is Pseudotropheus sp. "Elongatus Mpanga".

 

[denis coghlan]

I just informed the male Elongatus Yellowtail that he was not actually a yellowtail and that in fact he was a Elongatus Mpanga. He was as shocked as I was when he heard the news (see pic)

 

[brewyn]

hello. unless I am very much mistaken, this is an elongatus mpanga, better had be, there mine.

 

[denis coghlan]

Hi brewyn, I got my information from the site below. I would have thought that it would have been fairly accurate when it came to profiles. Let me know what you think as the mpanga on the cichlid forum does not look like yours.

Mpanga profile on cichlid-forum.com

A couple of other forums with good malawi profiles suggest that the fish I have is also Mpanga.

Mpanga profile on malawaimayhem

Let me know what you think?

tanks

 

[brewyn]

hi tanks alot, spent half hour looking on various sites last night after reading this post and I totally agree with you, there nothing like mine. I am pleased as I do prefere mine but I do wish these fish stores would get there information correct and stop making our hobbie complicated. I am also thinking that they have given me 2 males as apposed to the m/f they said they were. oh well, guesse I will be starting a new identity post LOL cheers tanks alot

 

[Ferris]

I just informed the male Elongatus Yellowtail that he was not actually a yellowtail and that in fact he was a Elongatus Mpanga. He was as shocked as I was when he heard the news (see pic)

 

[denis coghlan]

Just thought I would post an update on the female "mpanga" and the colour change.

She's looking better every day

Pic one is the female on the first day in the tank

Pic two is the female three days later (today) note the yellow markings on the head

Yesterday

Its quite the impressive change.

 

[Nick Sw]

It looks good tanks I`m definately going to try and get some of those once my tanks set up, really nice.

 

[mamafish68]

TANKS

have you posted the question on C-F?? in malawi section?

 

[denis coghlan]

have you posted the question on C-F?? in malawi section?

yeah I did post the question on C-F, but I got zero replies. I have never seen a picture of a female "mpanga", I have had a good google and search on the WWW but cant find any.