EBJD turned split gene.....
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There are only two phenotypes. Normal and electric blue. A split gene will look the same like a normal one.
If your pictures show the same fish, its an electric blue. As far as I know there is no hormon treatment that makes them more blue
The black coloration seems to be based on mood. I have seen specimen ready to breed that nearly went black.
If your pictures show the same fish, its an electric blue. As far as I know there is no hormon treatment that makes them more blue
The black coloration seems to be based on mood. I have seen specimen ready to breed that nearly went black.
My JD isn't blue but can go from solid black to yellow to everything in between. Your JD is normal.
Looks fairly young as well, they go through a number of colour phases until they are adult colours.
Common practice with many fish farms is to treat certain cichlids with methyl testosterone to bring out blues and reds in young cichlids. For example, most brightly colored small peacock cichlids are hormone treated juveniles and the majority of them will wash out until it's proven they are females. I think they actually pull out the males that are starting to color up before they hormone feed and hold onto them to sell at larger sizes.
Thirty years ago a friend of mine who was importing fish from Asia bought a big box of "color" flake food, that turned all my livebearers into males and made my baby discus look amazing. If I remember correctly, he also found some liquid methyl testosterone that could be added to dry food to do the same thing.
The reason I think that ebjd was hormone treated is because it had more solid blue on its body and fins as a younger fish, which is usually the opposite of what happens. I think this particular fish was hormone treated as a not particularly well-colored fish or possibly a female. It's color will probably improve with time as the natural hormones start to flow again.
Doesn't the first picture look like the more mature fish? Had to be hormone treated.
Thirty years ago a friend of mine who was importing fish from Asia bought a big box of "color" flake food, that turned all my livebearers into males and made my baby discus look amazing. If I remember correctly, he also found some liquid methyl testosterone that could be added to dry food to do the same thing.
The reason I think that ebjd was hormone treated is because it had more solid blue on its body and fins as a younger fish, which is usually the opposite of what happens. I think this particular fish was hormone treated as a not particularly well-colored fish or possibly a female. It's color will probably improve with time as the natural hormones start to flow again.
Doesn't the first picture look like the more mature fish? Had to be hormone treated.
I don’t entirely agree with you on the hormones for ebjd’s...I’m not saying it’s impossible, IMO it’s unlikely. They are quite a Attractive as juvies and don’t need colour enhancers like some other fish who star off as dull juvies and grow ito more colourful fish.
Here is a couple of collages of mine as he grew and went through different colours...
Even in the very first pic of the OP’s powdery blue he might be stressed, you can see the fins are nipped and he might have been getting picked on prior to being in the OP’s tank. Now he might be the dominant fish and displaying darker colours?
I agree with you, Niki-up, that most ebjd's do not need to be hormone treated because they are so spectacularly colored even at an inch long, but I do believe that this particular fish, or batch of fish was.