Some people will say that a Yellow Lab that shows these bars and bearding is low quality, but that's only because a lot of people expect their Labs to be that perfect, bright yellow. The first large male that I had used to get a big black beard, but no bars when he was working on claiming the tank for his own. Some adults will show no sign of bars for a long time, then all of a sudden BAM, there's bars and also bearding. Most of mine showed the bars very early in their lives, but once they grew to an inch or so long, the bars faded away, occasionally coming back when they all started to test each other out, to see who was going to be the boss for a while. It can be a genetic thing sometimes, and it can also be a stress related thing at times too. Nearly all of mine showed some hint of bars at some stage of their lives. A mbuna that looks like a yellow lab but is actually a 75% yellow lab/25% red zebra hybrid, it might be inclined to engage the opposite gender of any of those species regardless of what gender ratio's are in place.Ī hint of bars on the sides of Lab fry is quite common. Now with all of that said, :hmm3grin2orange:, the odds of hybridization significantly increases if any of the fish involved are of hybrid lineage. For example, keeping a male melanochromis interruptus in a tank with female melanochromis johanni's is probably just asking for hybridization to occur (though in my opinion red zebra's and yellow labs aren't even similar to each other). Keeping similar-looking mbuna's or even mbuna's belonging to the same genus in the same tank is said to increase the odds of hybridization occurring. Conversely, a red zebra with dominance over the male yellow lab may win breeding rights with female yellow labs if female red zebra's are absent in the aquarium). One of those conditions, I believe, is that the male must be ranked high in the tank's dominance hiearchy, for example an aggressive red zebra male wouldn't permit a sub-dominant male yellow lab to court a red zebra female. When opposite genders are lacking they (mbuna's in general) will be receptive to breed with any willing partner of any species in the same tank if conditions are right. I've kept groups of yellow labs and red zebra's together for years and they've never crossbred or shown any inkling of doing so. However, mbuna's are instinctively 'wired' to procreate with their own species which is the typical outcome when multiple species in the same tank are kept in proper gender ratio's. I read that you shoukdnt keep red zebras with yellow labs because they can cross breed.does that apply to all zebras?īecause the cichlids of lake malawi are genetically closely related, theoretically, this could apply to all mbuna's meaning: all mbuna species are potentially capable of interbreeding and producing viable, fertile and hybrid progeny with any other species, which means that a cobalt blue zebra could also cross with yellow lab. Local hobbiests and clubs are a good source as well. Davesfish is an excellent source, and there are a few others out there. Even consider adding a group of Synodontis catfish later on, to clean up uneaten food, and for fry control as well. They are all on the smaller size and will be a better fit for your tank. Start with 10 of each and whittle them down to the m/f ratio you want. Any of them can become mean at any point, it's just a level of meanness! Even Yellow Labs can get nasty at times! If it were my tank, I would consider a mix of something like Labs, a dwarf Afra type, and one other, maybe Rusties. And realistcally, only the Demasoni would work in a tank that size. It's not to say they can't be kept, but it requires some work and dedication to make it right. This includes the Auratus, Kenyi, Chipokae, Johanni, Bumblebees, and even Demasoni to name a few. It's almost a cruel joke by nature that some of the more popular looking species are among the meanest. If you're not ready to deal with the more aggressive types' behaviors, which means removing either the beat up fish or the aggressor, than stick with ones lower on the scale. The length is more important than the depth for mbuna, and a 42" tank is shorter than a standard 75g, so you lose some footprint. In that tank I would do 3 groups of mbuna, 22-24 fish total.
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