Can any one tell me what kind of Cichlid this is and if possible if it is male or female. I know I ask alot of you guys !

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I have found pictures of what my two species of cichlids look like. I have attached the pics of the Kenyis that I found, the auratus are pretty distinguishable. I have two Kenyis and two Melanochromis auratus, the auratus are females I think. Both of mine are the yellow-gold, black and white. One is about 2 inches long and the other 1 1/12 inches. I read on one web site that the auratus can switch sexes (females turning to males and vice-versa). Do you know if this is true? If so how do you determine the difference between the males and females? What about the Kenyis? Can you suggest any tank mates for them and my plecos? Right now everyone is geting along pretty good. But I would like to add some more Auratus, I read they should have a ratio of 1 male to 5 females. So I know I will add at least 4 more of those little guys. Thanks.

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Hi Rhonda,

Ok I have tons of experinece with both these fish.

Auratus under 3 inches can be either male or female. You wont know for sure until then. The male will turn black on the bottom half where the yellow is.

The female will stay her brilliant yellow color. Everyone once in a blue moon you get a female that when she is alone, no males, she will turn on the male coat. She will look just like the male. However, this is not as common as her just staying her natural colors. My female turned on her male coat and I thought she was sick. I had two males and got rid of them both. They are the most aggressive and they cause nothing but heart ache in one's tank. BTW, I am not the only one that says that. If you want to stick with the two you have for awhile and see what happens, I would do that before you end up buying two males by mistake. You can not have two males in the tank. They will tear eachother apart. So be cautious in what you get. Try to find ones that are already 3 inches long. Check the mom and pop shops.

The Kenyis,

Same thing. Over three inches will give you best results in distinguishing sex. Female are blue with black stripes. Males can take up to a year to show final results in yellow. They get this nasty color between yellow and blue and it's not green I am sorry to say. It's sickly looking colors but you can see the yellow starting where the dorsal fin and the body connect. Now I have seen yellow 2 inch kenyi at the LPS. There is a reason for this but I am not going to go into it. If you see 2 inches or smaller and yellow, really bright golden yellow color, that is deffinetly a male. It does NOT mean that all the blue ones are females. They can still change. Kenyi are aggressive but not as aggressive as auratus. My male kenyi Kenny is the master of the whole tank. I like it that way. He doesn't nip or bite, just chases fish away from his little nesting area and keeps fights from breaking out in the tank. He likes his peace and quiet. Anyhow, I have had him since he was about 1.5 inches long and now he is full grown. He is beautiful. My absolute favorite fish in the tank and I have a lot of colors in my tank but he is just different. Anyways, I have one female kenyi in the tank and there is no problems. However that doesn't mean you won't have problems if you only get one female and one male. The suggestion is 1-3 ratio for kenyi. However it's been reported that when you put two females or more in the tank, they fight a lot. I wouldn't know about that as I have never had two kenyi females in the tank before.

Hope that helps. Sorry for the ramble. I am passionate about my kenyi Kenny.


This is Kenny

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[Updated on: Thu, 03 April 2008 09:29]