Transcriptus or marlieri

I bought my Julies as transcriptus last summer, but now I've been reading that J. marlieri (Gombe) have been mislabeled in the past as J. transcriptus (Gombe) and now I'm wondering which mine are?

Looking through some Ad Konings photos of Julidochromis marlieri Gombe and they don´t look as your pic. I would say that yours look much more like a transcriptus. Awesome looking fish.

http://www.ciklid.org/artregister/artreg_visa_art.php?ID=818

I´ve been reading about transcriptus on some forums and there is one thing that seems wrong with your fish Betty. A transcriptus should not have a dark patch under the stripe that goes through the eye. Maybe Klaus knows something about this. None of Ad Konings photos have this either.


By thesweed at 2010-12-11

In your pair, which is the largest? marlieri females are larger than the males.

Håkan, that's part of what had me confused about this ID. I read that the marking on the cheek under the eye identifies it as a marlieri and I had just gone by what I bought it labeled as (transcriptus).

I think they look like these ---- http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1537

Mike, I'm not positive which is male and female -- I've never seen them laying eggs, but the smaller one of both pairs I have are the ones that seems to spend more time in the cave with the young ones.

Aura wrote:Håkan, that's part of what had me confused about this ID. I read that the marking on the cheek under the eye identifies it as a marlieri and I had just gone by what I bought it labeled as (transcriptus).

I think they look like these ---- [url=http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1537

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1537[/quote[/url]]


Yes, that looks like your fish. How big are they? The transcriptus only becomes around 3 inches and the marlieri about 5 inches. In Ad Konings photos the white patches on the body are much smaller and the blue on the fins on your fish are white on Konings photos. Maybe they have been mixed together during the time they where mislabeled.

They are about 3 inches maximum, probably not quite that large. The description in the profile at C-F says the Julidochromis marlieri (Gombe) max size is 3" and the writeup says This fish was originally mislabeled by aquarists as J. transcriptus (Gombe). However it is not transcriptus, it is in fact marlieri.

A few extra pictures. Here are some juvies.


The cheek patch doesn't show up much in these pictures of the young ones.




All of them are offspring of the fish in the first post and this one...

Awesome looking Julies! Then the Gombe is a dwarf marlieri because the rest of them becomes 10-13 cm (5 inches). I wish I could show you the Koning picture of the Gombe. It´s very different then yours and the one on the cichlid-forum. It has a black body with small white patches. Do you have the book "Back to nature, Guide on Tangayika cichlids"? There is a photo of the Gombe on page 87.

I do have that book! I won it as a door prize earlier this year when Ad Konings came to speak at our aquarium society! I got him to sign it too.

You're right, it doesn't look like mine at all, but neither do the photos of the transcriptus.

Maybe I'll post them on C-F and see what they think...

Yours looks pretty much like this one. Maybe the shot in the book is wrong.

http://www.ciklid.org/artregister/artreg_visa_art.php?ID=212

Betty, personally I believe that you have J. transcriptus. However, as Håkan mentioned already, the size will tell. My marlieri female is close to 6" (~150mm).

Betty, I have a pair (haven't spawned) of Julis I got from DRAF. They were sold as
J. transcriptus Kissi Pemba. They are small, around 3 inches, and do not have the
patch under the eye.
I would like to have some of the J. marlieri that grow to 5 inches, though, I just love the Julis.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I've done a lot of searching online and it just confuses more.

I did post on C-F. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=221795

Paintguy, if you happen to see this, your Julies are probably in that group of juvies eating lettuce in the picture above.