Cichlid, a Uganda Fire Red? No, ...

      A recent LFS purchase netted me a trio, one male and two female, of Uganada Fire Red.  Otherwise known as Haplochromis (Paralabidochromis) sp. "fire".  Now that I have had the fish for some time I am certain, although not quite completely, that this fish is not what it was sold as.  How could this have happened?


    Well quite easily, the male of this species changes color more often than I do socks.  It is actually hard to believe.  The male if not feeling quite sure of himself will get rather bland and sad looking.  Being an "aggressive" Victorian it all but turned female, buried itself in the sand and died when I dropped it in my Mbuna tank.  Not as aggressive as I was told and it surely doesn't have the same diet if what I read is true.  Mixed in with Mbunas his color went to something like a female with too much blush, but very similar to a lighter Uganda fire.  The following link is a small picture of a Uganda fire:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1552

... This is not what I have at the moment.  Here are two pictures to show what my male looks like.  Two, because it hides a lot and I cant get a good picture:

Head (nice lips)

Tail

    Ok, this has to be what others are calling an Astatotilapia nubila.  Here are links to various pictures supporting what I know to be true, so ha!

http://www.ciklid.org/artregister/image_art.php?image=A_Nubila2-Albin-Ekenberg.jpg
http://www.african-cichlid.com/Nubila8205.jpg (lips)
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1557 (This page also states it is an incectivore)


And for those who are wondering what they look like, here is one of the females:

Well, this is actually the lighter male look, the "I'm not feeling so tough today" look, the females have less green, no red and no blue.  As much as this fish can change its appearance I can understand how it could be misidentified.  I am actually glad I got what I did though.

cya