questin about Pundamilia nyererei species?

[awilson0001]

i have this fish that i believe is mwanza


unless someone can tell better... it was identified to this point using unidentified cichlid section.
question is, if i look up this fish for example, i get like 20 different looks. is there a site or book that gives a concrete discription and or pictures?

i bought this guy labeled as a mwanza as well, but his underside is near black and just about stays black.

any ideas?

[dtoth]

Well that last pic looks like a Makobe Island nyererei. The other pics I would have to agree are mwanza nyererei or possibly python island variety.

[Lisachromis]

http://www.hillcountrycichlidclub.com/a ... ererei.pdf

[nick a]

This is the general problem many people run into with many of the Vics available in the "open market".

First it's important to understand some things.
1. All P. nyererei are the same species. The collection point locational identifier (ie Mwanza Gulf...Makobe Island...etc...) is included because each locale variant exhibits somewhat differing coloration/pattern and should never be mixed with others from different variants.
2. Mwanza {gulf} is not a typical location description...it is the best we got from the exporters but, it represents a fairly large area & we wish we had a more specific collection point.
3. Within each locale variant population, each male has it's own unique look AND each male will display his uniqueness differently depending on any number of environmental and social variables.
(For example,the fish in your pics may well be brothers, however the one displaying the black appears to be the more dominant fish)
4. Unless you purchased your fish from a high quality source, it is possible that the rule noted in item 1 about mixing may not have been followed. It is relatively worthless to try to identify these fish, after the fact, using profile pics etc.....Unless you are certain of the source and the identity of your fish from the onset, it is often best to note them as a 'generic form ' of P. nyererei fry are to be collected.

HTHs

[dbrummitt]

Yes the last pic is from a very viable source, it is from me. I have kept quite a few vics, a lot actually and the male he has is from a group of F1s that I was lucky to acquire about 2.5 or 3 years ago from a very good source. They had done a colecting trip june of that year and I was lucky to get F1 fry from him. The top pic is not mine and I told the original poster of this thread the same as nick about the variants and how it is important to try and keep the strains "true" with victorian species. Dustin B

[awilson0001]

i posted this shortly after i got them and was not sure at that point what was what.

i am not doughting the group i got from you, but posted this just for info and opinions. so please do not think i dont believe you.

also, i do recall now that you sold these to me as mwanza "red". after recalling that, i did find some good photos that look very much like the male.

that being said, my first fish may be a mwanza or python, but the group i bought is mwanza "red".

so i guess a better thing to throw into the topic is what is the difference from mwanza and mwanza "red"?
again, this was started before i talked to some folks and researched it some. never intended for disbelief...

[nick a]

The locale variant "Mwanza" as I noted above is quite vague, "mwanza red" is a trade name only.
Also seen as "red mwanza " & ""mwanza west"...but these are hardly scientific and who knows as time goes by if they are all describing the same fish?