Electric Blue Cichlids

[Malawiandude]

They sound like Ahli's to me, and good price but just too cheap do they look like either of these:

Or this one:

*photo's were taken from yahoo search engine*

 

[AllusiveLife]

The Top one...

 

[AllusiveLife]

They were regularly 14 dollars, and when I bought 4, it would have came to 56 dollars if they were not on sale. (Petco) So they came to 27 dollars.

 

[freshcichlid]

the top one is the Ahli, not an a melanchromis johanni

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

there are two types of Johanni, the regular johanni and the electric blue / maingano johanni.
the regualr johanni has blue males and yellow ladies
the maingano are both blue
you can check it out on google and youll see
help any?

There is no regular johannii and electric blue johannii. There is only elcetric blue johannii which is the comon name for Melanochromis johannii. Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos is a different species therefore it is not a "johannii" and has no common name that I have seen.

Melanochromis johannii (electric blue johannii) males are blue and females are yellow. I've been everywhere trying to find one. The biggest fish store in the state doesn't even have any. The reason I always get: "breeders don't sell them any more because no one wants them." More like they don't want anyone breeding beautiful johanniis on their own instead of paying money for them.

Melanochromis johannii

Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos

 

[AllusiveLife]

It looks like I will just have to take pictures of them.

But the Male has a really bright shiny body, with bright white line on its back, very good looking fish. Where the females are just one color, and I have seen those fake eggs on the back back fin... One has like 7 fake eggs on its back fin... (Never seen a cichlid with more than 5-6 fake ones)...

 

[AllusiveLife]

I believe I have seen the Cichlid that you're referring to, that you apparently haven't been able to find. We have this place called Ocean Floor inside of Arizona, and its half the size of a Walmart, filled with huge tanks that are at least 1,000 gallons, and they have huge fish inside of them, and probably have a couple hundred tanks alone. And they have a Pond inside of the building, with tons of huge koi, and different types of goldfish let alone Plecos. This place is huge, and they have different tyles of sales. Well, one of the sales were Buy a cichlid and get another one half off. And I saw the Blue cichlid with the black lines, that looks exactly likes yours, but was called and Arutis or something, and I guess the female is the yellow? But, they were selling them for 4.50, and if you were to buy another one, both would come to 6.75... Please tell me I'm thinking of the right fish...

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

I have a Melanochromis auratus and a melanochromis johannii. Melanochromis auratus. For johannii's the male is blue with stripes and the female is yellow with indistinct darkish yellow stripes. The auratus female is yellow with black or black and white stripes on the upper half of the body. The lower half of the body is yellow and the tail fin is colored with the markings at the top just as they are on the body.

Melanochromis auratus

 

[freshcichlid]

i think a picture would help us all out a lot

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

I'm not sure if you were asking me or Alisive life for a pic. All the links I have provided have pics of the male and female of each species we have talked about. I have to wait till I get my digital camera back before I can post pics of my fish.

 

[freshcichlid]

i was asking AlusiveLife for a pic, just to make certain what fish it is.
but post up some pics of your fish too ! why not , id enjoy

 

[Malawiandude]

Female Fryeri's are Grey with a hint of orange on their dorsal fin. As for johannii's i am pretty sure their are two types.

Good deal you got on the fryeri, sounds like it's them. You'll like them.

 

[AllusiveLife]

Here's a pic of two of the 4 that I bought...

Pic

 

[Malawiandude]

yup that's fryeri/ahli (close just small difference between two)

 

[sylvia]

Looks like ahli though that male is rather more brightly colored than you often see. Fryeri doesn't usualy have all that yellow but fryeri is more common than ahli and usualy more brightly colored. I'm not a cichlid expert so I'm not entirely sure which of the two it is realy

There is only one johannii species as far as I know. None of the melanochromis species are entirely monomorphic (well actualy by deffinition some are but nevermind ) - the females are always a different color to the males. However, there is another 'johannii' also in the melanochromis genus. It's the black-white johannii. I can't remember it's scientific name but it's not actualy m. johannii - just borrows the common name. The fish I call 'electric blue' is s. fryeri in which the females are a paler grey-blue. None of these fish will cross-breed with yellow labs.

edit: Just to add that the 'electric blue johannii' everyone's been talking about is m. cyaneorhabdos in which females are slightly lighter blue than males. They look very similar to johannii which is why they are often given this common name and, indeed, are also often sold as johannii though they clearly are not.