heres a couples pics
o and he like 5 inches long

I havent a clue. Will look around though, but at a guess its an african. Not sure though.

looks like a yellow lab.

his species is labidochromis caeruleus.

They are semi-aggressive and do best with a bunch of their own kind. You can tell males from females easiest because the male's dorsal fin has more black on it. Here's a pic I cribbed off of Liveaquaria. THey're from lake malawai...

yea, male electric yellow cichlid (or yellow lab). my two can get pretty aggresive; oh, and hate snails with a passion as a species they're actually less agressive than many other cichlidae though.

they like rocky and densly planted area. they'll eat anything, and are really easy to breed (mouthbrooder) if you're into that. i got two females, both 4" long; i've heard they can grow to 8" though. slightly alkaline water 78 degrees is ideal for 'em, but do fine at lower or higher temps.

they are striking though, and the name definitely fits.

cool mines is very aggresive and i just found out that he has little teeth
my neighbor who agve it to me said the were african, same as malawi?

Lake Malawi is in the Great African Rift Valley system. it's about 360 miles long and is the natural habitat to many of the african cichlids; including your electric yellow. it's supposedly rocky at the bottom and heavily 'planted' with reeds and such.

o thanks, anyways your bala sharks needs a lot of water per fish rite?

yea, they do. mine are just about 7" each; and can grow to 10-12" or more long. on top of that they need a lot of room to swim straight out (4 feet minimum length) and enough room to turn around while swimming (1 foot minimum depth).

if you're thinking about getting some, make sure your lid is on tight, they're very skiddish and jump,,, hard. i haven't had any jump out yet, but i've heard stories.

so these guys need about maybe 40 gallons each?

yea. well, not all to themselves. but if you're going to have 2 or 3, by the time they're full grown you'll want atleast 70-80 gallon aquarium. you can have other fish in there though.