Black with white stripe cichlid...

[BeginnerGlenn]

can anyone tell what kind of cichlid it is...any resources i can check for it? his 4 -5 inches long

[moosesox]

http://www.thekrib.com is a good resource, but you would have to stroll through the pictures to find what it is.

[benedictj]

The two that immediately come to my mind are either Frontosas or Convicts. Here's a few links that might help

Frontosa

Take a look at the second pic here-
Convict

[Tommy]

A picture is worth a thousand words Glenn. Any chance of showing us the fish in question? Is this something you brought home already?

[snogard]

convict has black stripes. so i dont think it's a convict, how much did you pay for it? and can you give us a hint on the body shape? elongated or roundish?

snogard

[caza]

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishin ... cylind.htm

a Cylindricus maybe?

[puffermantis]

I take it there was a picture with the question, but I'm not seeing anything. Neither are a couple others apperantly, either,

[BKtomodachi]

Convicts are very common. But again, a picture!

[BeginnerGlenn]

well..i would take a picture but i dont think the owner would allow me ..she says its a convict.its pure black with 4 solid white stripe...elongated dorsal fin...it looks like a big african cichlid..but IME..i have not seen africans getting that big...maybe its a rare atrain of a convict..the reason i was asking is because..it killed and ate a smaller pleco...about 3 inches...just want to make sure i know what I'm getting before i put it in my 90 gallon with several other african cichlids. it has a rounded body..and not so pronounce head..

[peifc]

There are convicts that can get to 8". I know of a person who has such big convict. I'll say the fish you saw was a convict.

[Tommy]

With all due respect Pei (and you know I respect you immensely) wouldn't a convict be better described as solid silver with black lines? He gave the description: "pure black with four solid white stripes". To me this would mean a solid black head and body with (I'm assuming) vertical white stripes and that doesn't begin to describe any convict that I have ever owned or even seen in pictures.

[peifc]

IME, female convicts are more silver/white. Male has more of the gray body. I've seen some that are quite white. And I've also seen some convict as they age...they are more white than black or gray. It really depends on the stress level of the fish and condition it is in.

If indeed the head is colored with just 4 white stripes...I'll guess this is African cichlids. There aren't one American cichlids I know of with such look.

It is possibly this...

Then again...this front usually has 6 bars instead of 4...especially for younster at 4". Adult has more of the 4 white bars look when their blue developed into deeper color to almost black in some cases.

Or the fish could be tropheus, but again...this particular tropheus...I usually saw more than 4 bars even as youngster. Or it could be malawi cichlid ... P. demosoni. Again...I hardly ever saw one with 4 bars. Most I encountered have 5-6 bars. And their colors are usually blue not pure black with white bars.

I doubt it will be buttikoferi because butti has more than 4 bars. Usually has 6 bars.

A picture worth a thousand words. If you really can't take picture, try to describe the shape of the snout (short or long, round or pointy), body shape (height and length), fins colors (pattern and etc), and whatever you can think off. This can help us try to imagine what the fish looks like to give you a possible fish identification.

[BeginnerGlenn]

the picture you posted..it looks like that..bbut pure black and white stripe//and had and elongated dorsl fin..its long it look like another tail..its a beautiful fish...i just want to know what it is before i get it from her...

[cindywindy]

Agreed, I would say that the description is just waaaay too general to give a positive ID and any attempt at identifying this fish with this little information would just be a stab in the dark.

Glenn, if at all possible, please provide for Pei the specific information she needs so she can work her magic or perhaps try to locate a pic on the web that you can link us all to in order to get a much clearer idea of the fish in question.

[KDodds]

Hmm... possibly Tilapia (?) buttikoferi, Lamprologus tretocephalus, or Lamprologus sexfasciatus? I'm probably using older genus names, tho.