[Chad Roehrich]

Hello,

I have had a planted Peacock/Hap tank running for months now with no issues. I added 3 new fish a few days ago and I have been finding numerous bits in leaves. I mean tons. Every time I pull up a chair, nobody wants to reveal themselves(VERY FRUSTRATING). I was told this was a non-plant destroying Hap, but I'm wondering now if its a mbuna. Thanks for any feedback!

 

[Nordic]

Pseudotropheus acei ?

 

[BoxxerBoyDrew]

Could be an Acei as Nordic said, but I have never seen one with the yellow speckles on the face like that. It could be a Hybrid of an Acei and ? as well, but I would almost bet on it being a Mbuna!!! If the plant nipper isn't doing any nipping while you are watching up close I would suggest trying sitting further across the room, or if you have a video recorder/Camcorder setting it up on a tripod as far back from the tank as you can, and zoom in on the plants that are being nipped the most and set it to record in the slowest setting it has. That way you will be able to get the longest recording time, then you can quickly scan threw the video to see who is messing with the plants!

If you have no recorder, try pulling the fish in the pic and put him in another tank to see if the plant nipping stops!

Hope this helps, and Good Luck figuring out who is doing the nipping!!!
Drew

P.S. I really like the Tank!!! Peacocks are on the top of my Favorite Fish List!!!! I had a Peacock, Victorian,and Tang. 100g tank setup as a room divider in our Duplex when we first moved to the Waco area almost 20 years ago!!! It was a sight to see!!! I will have to see if I can find any pics of it, and scan them in to the computer!

 

[thedood]

Labidochromis hongi is my guess. They are definitely herbivores. I had floaters and hornwort in with mine as nitrate control and they devoured them. Beautiful fish. Lots of personality. Just not plant friendly at all. Also they will dig and they are proficient and skilled at it.

Edit: As a matter of fact that fish is my avatar!!
Edit2: Looking at that fish closer the dorsal fin is more rounded that the typical hongi. It does indeed look like an acei or acei hybrid.

 

[Chad Roehrich]

Ahha!

I confirmed at a LFS a few days ago that it is indeed a Mbuna. The owner claimed it was a type of Zebra, but it does look like it could be a Labidochromis hongi as well! Without an hesitation, I traded the guy in. Since then my plants prayers have been answered Yeah I thought about setting up a video camera there for a while! I felt like the culprit was just rubbing it in my face when nothing would happen when watching haha. I'm glad you like that tank! With this being my first post since the new tank, I appreciate the feedback. I can be very anal when it comes to the tank unfortunately. I really don't like how my rocks are set up and the varying colors. I was thinking about taking all my rock out and adding a bunch of the holy white rock(don't remember the name off hand ). That way I just have one uniform rock, wood, and plants. Thoughts on that aquascape? I think the Africans would like the rock, too. And yes, I love my Peacocks! I recently added two vey colorful ones as well. It's amazing how many different color combination there is. Thedood: I also thought it looked like a hybrid. It definitely had a nice personality!

 

[Betta132]

Your tank looks awesome, definitely don't replace the rockwork.

 

[PlantedRich]

As I keep and breed both Hongi and Acie, I would not say either of those are correct. I would go with hybrid from a mix of two mbuna as they are very prone to cross breeding.
A close look at Acei shows no yellow on much of the body. The second picture of acei and Hongi shows the distinct vertical black markings and no yellow mixed in on the rest of the body. A mature Hongi (AKA: super red top?) should have a well colored tail and dorsal fin depending on what area of the lake they were from originally.