27 replies to this topic

[Hood]

Hey guys,

My mate Hareysfish sent me these pics this arvo by mobile,
they are of his colony of cynotilapia afra "lions cove" or so they were sold to him as,
they have a definite purple to the body color and they yellow is definitely not as prevalent as in the "cobwe",
he has searched the net andfound varying images for the "lions cove",
so he was hoping someone may be able to help him confirm them....

here are some pics from his phone:

[cichlid4lyf]

they look a bit too purpley,
the lions cove i used to have had alot more yellow throughout the body.

also that fish seems to have a fairly short body?

phil

[Fox]

Not Cynotilapia lion 'lions cove'

Possibly Cynotilapia afra 'chilingali', they are rare to Oz ATM and only one person I know of has them in Oz & one in WA. But they may have circulated by now.

[golden_dase]

From my observations... Chilingali don't have that much yellow outline on dorsal fins, Az..

[Fox]

I just looked at the other pics, And you could be onto something

[hareysfish]

Thanks "HOOD" ( Josh) for putting the pics up for me . this male is my spare (hence the stumpy / bugger al tail) as he came off second best with my dominate male. sorry the pics arn't the best and i believe Josh has done a good job trying to fix them up for me, but im trying to get a positive i.d. on them as ive seen a few different colour forms / variants of the "lions cove" . they came from a fairly repretive ( well i though) breeder down in brisbane a few years ago, so any help would be good . I'll try ang get some better pics tomorrow of my main male to see if anybody could help out.

cheers scott

[ruffaz]

im sure they have a lot of diffrent variations that one looks to be (minos reef) variety
but it may also be a cross ? i reckon is a minos though

[Peckoltia]

It looks different to my male lion. In the respect that the body of your fish seems to be more compressed than my guy. It also shows more purple.

I'll try get some pics for comparison.

[ruffaz]

im calling hybrid on this fish its so close yet so far

peckolia is your lion cove manily yellow at all

[ruffaz]

are we all confused or maybee i have my wires mixed up as i thought lion cove were (cynotilapia sp.)

and i dont no all species but as far as im aware there is no lions cove (cynotilapia afra) maybee im wrong can any one decipher for me ?

[golden_dase]

Hmm.. would be interesting to find out what it is!

[hareysfish]

thanks guys for the replys , as i stated above his body is a little more compressed / hardly any tail as he really did come off second best against my main male . i'll try and get some pics today of my main male. im only hoping they arn't a hybrid as they are a gorgeous little fish and i paid a small fortune for them.

cheers scott

[ruffaz]

dood this is the way i see it you seem to like the fish and they look awesome great coluring if they do turn out to be a hybrid who cares as long as your happy just go talk to the original owner if you can

[hareysfish]

after going through all of the Afras on " CHICHLID FORUM .COM " ive come up with to posbilities , either the "minos reef" or the " chilingali." . as for being a hybrid , the markings / vertical barring on them are to " perfect" for a hybrid. most hybrid fish that have the barring usually dont match ( messy) up on either sides , neither alone through the dorsal fin. anyway ima still searching.

cheers scott

here are just a couple of other pics that ive found on the "minos reef"

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

[Peckoltia]

dood this is the way i see it you seem to like the fish and they look awesome great coluring if they do turn out to be a hybrid who cares as long as your happy just go talk to the original owner if you can

The problem is if the fish are hybrids then it makes it impossible to recoop any of the initial outlayed money. Also takes away some of the fun, any hardcore cichlid enthusiasts don't want a tank full of hybrid fish. I know I don't.

To be honest, I had another look at my lions cove male last night. There is less difference then I initially thought. My guy is quite purple also, with about the same amount of yellow. Only major difference is your fish seems to have more of a compressed body than mine, this could be because the tail is shorter, coupled with the average pics.

I'll keep trying to get a pic of my guy, but he is quite the difficult fish to photograph as he is constantly displaying and chasing fish. Is your fish agro? Mine I would have to say is the most agro malawi I have ever kept. Makes a problem of himself even in a large 8x3 tank. Got to love his spirit though.

Alex

[ruffaz]

I though tru lions cove had yellow as there main colour

[Hood]

Here is a pic of his dominant male that Scott has sent me today, hope this helps with I.D.

[bradfitzy]

Here is a pic of my lions cove




hope it helps for comparison

Brad

[dazzabozza]

Hood, the coloring and markings of yours remind me of Lab. "mbamba" but with more of a zebra/metria/cyno body shape.

My old male


The dark throat / mask also quite noticeable on both of our fish but not so much on Brad's "lions cove". Yellow outline on both of our fish also obvious but not on Brad's.

Also see this thread re: the questionable yellow patch sometimes seen on the mbamba's heads - http://www.perthcich...showtopic=20425

Daz

[Peckoltia]

Here is a pic of my lions cove




hope it helps for comparison

Brad

Almost identical looking to mine.



Here is a pretty average photo of mine in a group shot, bottom right. That is pretty much breeding dress. Only really has yellow on it's face, operculum and some under the dorsal.