Juvenile vs Adult Fahaka coloration

[ride1226]

Well, I have decided to go after a new fahaka for my big tank. Letting go of my little guy sucks, but I want a big fish, and dont have a good smaller tank for my mini fahaka to be rehomed into. So, I am now in the search for a fahaka again. A shop I got a fish from a while back has two in stock, they said they are sitting in the sand and not active, but did get me a picture.

They look so blotchy, and nothing like the big striped beauties I am used to seeing and loving. Even my little guy at 3.5 inches looked like this...

Now, mine came in looking like that. If thats how mature older ones look, we may have a case of me getting either an adult/stunted fahaka thats still at least healthy. Or, possibly, thats a max sized adult "Lake Turkana" fahaka.

Is the first picture what all of your juveniles have looked like before they packed on some size and weight? If thats the case I will pick one of these "mottled" darker looking specimens up and hopefully grow up a beautiful fish. Like I said, at just over 3 inches my first fahaka looked just like that.

PS, if anyone is in the market for a beautiful fahaka with a happy healthy hungry personality, mine is for sale. Id prefer someone local to SD so I dont have to ship the poor little guy. Hate to see him go, but hed be better off in a 55-75 for the rest of his life and I dont have a tank of that size and I wanna free up my 120g.

 

[Fat Homer]

From what i've seen, a lot of the young fahakas that come into this town tend to be very blotchy color wise... infact, my female at 13" is still blotchy...

 

[ride1226]

As blotchy as the first one up top? I want an adult with nice striping like how my mini has, and some of the gorgeous ones you see on here.

 

[Fat Homer]

I would say mine when i bought her was as blotchy if not more blotchy than your first pic's puffer...

 

[ride1226]

How big was she? Is the blotchyness clearing up? Are the stripes showing now at 10 inches?

 

[Fat Homer]

I bought her at just under 1.5" shes now about 13" - 14"...

As for the blotchiness, no it hasn't really cleared it shes still blotchy... but as i said, depending on her mood she does i guess you can say flash her solid stripes for maybe 5 - 10 min... then shes back to being blotchy... so i take it as a sort of warning / adjusting to water temps when doing water changes...

But then again, i think i read some where once that people have theorized that females may just be blotchy, and the males have more solid markings?

 

[ride1226]

Gotcha, so I wanna aim for getting a stripey male then. Thats the fish I want in my tank. Too bad mine didnt grow, he has awesome striping on him.

 

[Fat Homer]

This is where it also gets tricky... i should have mentioned this just now... but i've also heard, that when young, all fahakas are blotchy... now is this true i'm not sure... but from the 30 - 50 Fahaka babies (under 3") i've come across in my time in the hobby, they've all seemed to be blotchy...

So will you be able to pick a male out of the bunch is really i think a game of luck...

 

[Pufferpunk]

How are you going to know it's a male? if it doesn't become a striking fish, will you be selling that one too?

 

[ride1226]

How are you going to know it's a male? if it doesn't become a striking fish, will you be selling that one too?

No, but if it doesnt grow I will. If thats a crack at me for getting rid of my small fahaka I dont appreciate it. Its not like I am putting him to sleep or eating him, simply re-homing. As stated before, my little guy is beautiful, and if the law hadnt been laid down in my household stating that I am not allowed to get another tank, I would be setting up a third tank to keep him. The little guy is an awesome fish, and it sucks to let him go, but IMO with the 1k+ dollars I spent to set up a huge tank I should have a fish that I want in it.

FH, thanks. Thats basically what I was trying to figure out. If they were all blotchy. Almost all that I had seen a year ago in my original search for a fahaka were blotchy as well. Thats why I was so surprised when my little guy came in from LiveAquaria already completely colored and showing his stripes at only 3 inches.