Bronze color female Dovii - Please Look!

[Mudfrog]

I have been trying to find information for a very long time about the bronze coloration that my female Dovii has. She is very very colorful for a female. Does anyone know if it's a color morph or a regional thing? I've looked at every site I can find about Dovii and I just can't find any information on it. Does anyone have any ideas?

Also, my male that is currently 5.5" has bronze spots on it's body as opposed to black spots, even above the lateral line. Is this normal? Will they turn black? I believe they have the same parents so maybe it's something to do with that?

Here's the pics.. (I have better pics of the spots on the male, but they are at home, if you want to see them let me know.)

Female:

Male: Notice the bronze spots, especially above the lateral line..

 

[WildCAught]

It's a really nice dovii... I'm not sure if it's the pics but there really isn't much more bronze than on other female dovii. The Male is nice too.

You are right though, there are a few regional variants and I'm sure someone else can probably shed light on this.

 

[Mudfrog]

Really? I've yet to see another female like that, the one's I typically see are mustard yellow. Have any links?

 

[---XR---]

your fish is not mature, or in mature coloration.

as fish age, all sorts of colors come and fade.

as i remember, you said you buy your fish from LFS's, and 99.9% of LFS's will not stock wild cichlids, a few buy from collectors like rapps, and these few will get them. but petsmart and such- No.

The reason i mention this is because, there are 2 common places wild dovii come from, Costa Rica and Niceragua. Both vary a bit in overall coloration and markings for adults. But being that yours is captive bred, it will not have these distinct markings. as fish that have been bred in captivity for many generations the offspring will lose the traits and become more drab with time.

there nothing special about this girl.

 

[Mudfrog]

Hmm.. ok that, just seems to me like she's a lot more colorful then the typical female dovii, I did get them from a LFS but they purchase them from a private breeder, not a chain breeder.

This is good news though because I've actually been looking into selling them and if she was displaying some colors that are not typical I would probably keep them, but I've really been toying with the idea of selling them so this will make the decision easier.

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Either way, you have a nice looking pair there!

 

[---XR---]

don't you only have 55 gal tanks?

 

[Mudfrog]

don't you only have 55 gal tanks?

No I have a 150, 2 55's, 2 50 breeders (48x18x13)..

Right now they are in one of the 50 breeders.

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Getting a 300g sometime soon, are we?

 

[Mudfrog]

Getting a 300g sometime soon, are we?

Nope.. not anytime soon.. If I decide to keep them I'll move them to the 150 after I set it up (it's empty at my work). Then they will be good for a while. I highly doubt I'll keep them though, they are just too skittish for my taste.. mean little buggers but skittish.