Pseudotropheus elegan - Acei - Color Variants?

[Pharaoh]

We were having a bit of a discussion within our local club about the various variants of Acei that are out there. We are only aware of two color morphs found at three locations.

Yellow-Tail - Luwala & Msuli
White Tail - Ngara

It appears to be more and more common to see the "Itungi Tanzania" variant available through fish distributors. Is this a real variant of the Acei or is something up?

He's a link from Ad that I was reading that got this moving.

http://www.borstein.info/profiles/malaw ... egans.html

Thanks,
Bobby

[ThatGuy]

The five primary variants that are available:

Yellow-tails
"Luwala"
"Msuli"

Black Yellow-tail
"Itungi-Tanzanian"

White-tail
"Ngara"

Other
"Selewa"

[ThatGuy]

Also, "Senga" which falls under the Yellow-tail category.

[Philippe Burnel]

Kasinda
http://burnel.perso.neuf.fr/Photos/Pacei.htm

Another question : are really all the acei morphs belonging to P. elegans ?

[ThatGuy]

http://malawicichlids.com/mw09006e.htm

I always thought from Ad Konings' books and the photos I've seen of elegans that they looked more like M.livingstonii!? According to the link above, M.elegans can be told apart by the extended anal fin from M.livingstonii and other than that they look very similar.

Personally I don't think "acei" should be in the Pseudotropheus group, they just are too different IMO. Body shape, feeding behaviour, aggression levels, etc. The fact that they are non-territorial should be factored in as well, considering many of the Pseudotropheus group are highly territorial. I think Gephyrochromis would be a more suitable genus, but I don't know the details on how "acei" differ from G.lawsi and G.moorii.

[ThatGuy]

I do realize too that Gephyrochromis moorii and lawsi have very different dentition than "acei" and it's very noticeable. lol. I have a big group of acei "Ngara" and 25 or so G.lawsi right now in two separate tanks.

Nick

[COG Commando]

I have always wondered about the 'itungi' variants as well. I actually have hybrid (msuli x ngara) fingerlings and they look exactly like all these "wild caught" Tanzania Black I keep seeing on websites and in LFSs. I can post pictures of them if anyone would like to see. I also talked to Ad not too long ago about this subject and he believes that all 'acei' types are simply geographical variants of the same species, Pseudotropheus elegans.

[Pharaoh]

It just seems to me that a lot of these variants looks so similar or even look to be a mix of two other variants.