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Hello everyone. This past Saturday, I went to one of our local pet stores to purchase some cichlids for my four foot tank. After debating for a while between getting a half a dozen or so of juvenile Zebra Convicts or a half a dozen of juvenile unknowns -- I'll explain what I mean by "unknowns" in a minute -- I decided to get the unknowns at $5 each.

The problem was that some of the cichlid tanks at the store were poorly labeled; and by "poorly", I mean that they just had a "Cichlids" label on them, and nothing else, other than the price. No Latin name, no English name; nothing. Of course, being the experienced aquarist that I am -- -- I had my Barron's "Lake Malawi Cichlids" book with me, as well as the first volume of the Baensch "Aquarium Atlas", both of which I bought a number of years ago.

From looking at the Barron's book, I had narrowed down the "unknowns" as being one of four possible species; and I was happy with that, because they were all dwarf cichlids -- four inches at maturity -- and from the Lake Malawi area no less, which is what I had originally intended to purchase. I bred Copadichromis Borleyi -- aka Red Kadango -- several years ago, and I really enjoyed the male. Our water here is hard and alkaline, so African cichlids, such as Malawi cichlids, do quite well.

The store employees didn't have a clue what kind of cichlids they were, but then the store owner arrived; and after looking at her last order, plus her catalog, she identified them as juvenile Protomelas Spilonotus Tanzania. Currently, they are each roughly two inches in length, with steely blue and black body markings. The store owner may very well be correct, but I still have my doubts. If anyone here can post some high-quality images of juvenile Protomelas Spilonotus Tanzania at two inches in length, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks!

Okay can we flip the request to can you post a photo of what you have? You've peaked my curiousity! I agree if someone else has photos to post them as well. But if the shop didn't lable the tanks very well, I don't think we can trust the bookkeeping any better. Especially if she had to cross reference and couldn't recognize them.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Hello there. Thanks for your quick response.

Well, I don't own a camera, but my daughter does have a digital camera, which I have never used. These little buggers love darting around the rock decor in the tank, so it would be difficult to snap a picture of them, but maybe when she is not busy, I could get my daughter to try.

I suspect that they may be one of the following, but for now, it is just a guess:

Melanchromis Johanni
Melanchromis Auratus
Melanchromis Vermivorus

As I said, right now, they are predominantly blue and black, with no yellow, orange or red color whatsoever. If juvenile Protomelas Spilonotus Tanzania look anywhere similar to the above at about 2", then maybe that is what they really are. Surfing the web I came up empty-handed.

Thanks again!

PS: Can't attach an image, even if I wanted to, because I am not a premium member.

Me neither! But the work around for not being a premium member is posted in photo booth. (I copied and pasted from that thread below)

• It's funny our kids have the techie stuff, we should have. I have commandeered my daughters video camera for some of the same issues. Unfortunately my computer is not co-operating with the uploads/downloads.
  
  First and foremost you are going to need to have that picture saved on your computer. Two ways of doing that.
  
  1. You have a digital camera and have saved your pics from it.
  
  2. You scan your actual picture with a scanner and have that saved file.
  
  Now that you have a saved picture there are two ways to post pics on this site.
  
  1. By linking to your picture hosted on another site (explained in depth below).
  
  2. By being a premium member you can directly upload your picture from your computer or embed the image into the post by using the picture's web adress where it is hosted.
  
  Now if you are not a premium member here you will need to upload your picture onto a site that will host it so you can link to it from here. Here are some great FREE hosting sites for pictures:
  
  Yahoo Photos
  
  Village Photos
  
  Web Shots
  
  Snap Fish
  
  Once you have created an account and uploaded your pictures you will find each one has a different way of allowing you to share your photos, Some will require to make your picture or album public first, but all allow you to use the web adress of your picture as a link.
  
  Once you have a link for your picture you can link to it here using our easy markup buttons; which is on the screen to create or reply to a thread
  
  
  
  
  TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
  Kelly ;o}