General Cichlid Color Discussion

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NewETown

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 5, 2008
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Washington
So I was talking with my friend today, and we were discussing what makes a good looking fish good looking. We have all seen those pictures of fish and just been like :WHOA: and then we all react something along the lines of :nilly: haha.

Anyways, this is really directed at the people who have them or who really know, but what makes these fish so colorful/large/attractive?

Is it diet?

Locality?

Just the individual?

Tank environment?

Setup/general fish happiness?

What does it really take to bring out the best in your fish's color?

123go! :D
 
Well, if you were talking SA/CA cichlids there would be a variety of factors.

Diet is indeed a large factor. If you feed your fish foods high in caretinoids, they will have more intense reds, oranges, and yellows. Likewise, if you feed your fish foods that have a lot of spirulena algae, they are going to have more intense blues and greens. Variety of foods is also important for intense coloration since it supplies the fish with a vast amount of different nutrients and natural color enhancers.

Locality is EXTREMELY important with SA/CA cichlids. Take Crenicichla for example ( :D ). Crenicichla marmorata has several different color variants from different localities. The marms from Rio Tapajos are going to look different from the marms that come from the Rio Trombetas. Some variants are more attractive than others. ;)

Hand picking, or through selective breeding will produce better looking fish, which then can be boiled down to individual fish looking better than the rest I suppose.

Aquarium environment is going to be a HUGE factor. Keeping a docile, passive fish with large, aggressive fish is going to stress it out, thus reducing its color achievement. Too much light, not enough, too sparsly decorated, and color of the substrate all effect the fishes coloration.

Keeping the fish in the parameters and closest resemblance to their natural habitat and biotope will bring out the best in your fish. If you keep a fish that is from soft, acidic water in hard, basic water they aren't going to show as vivid of coloration as those that are.

What it takes to bring out the best coloration of your fish? Time, dedication to details, and lots of TLC.
 
How about all of the above.

But I would say first off it is the fish. If your fish is timid it is going to be dang hard to get good colors out of him. (IE they you really do have to worry about tank mates and all that other junk.)

Then as mentioned by Peanut_Power. It is amazing what selective breeding will do. When it comes to that the question is do you like the more wild/natural look, or do you like the wow look. (Say look at german reds, or a lot of apisostos or other SA fish.)

Food will cause fish to color up more, but honestly if you started with a crud fish it doesn't matter.

Tank mates as mentioned is a big problem. But if you find the right fish you can have say all of your male peacocks/haps showing amazing color all at once. It can take years for this to happen. (IE get a good balance and have everyone color up.) And suddenly a one fish can suddenly cause a total rebalance of dominance and hence coloring. (It stinks but sometimes it is cool to see males that weren't showing as well go into full blast. The down side is someone else will dull it down usually.)

As for the setup. Well depending on types of fish you have to worry about line of sight.

But if you hadn't gathered I would say that the actually inividual fish is the key element. (The people that enter their fish into say the ACA convention and win first usually will have say 5 different individual tanks of that same fish all alone, and then they will grow them for years. Picking the best one to show.)

And to top it off with Peacocks/haps it isn't always easy to pick out the best colored one. Heck one of my nicest ones was so ugly I was about to give up on it. (It took till it reached ~5 inches till it showed great color.) Anyways I am fairly certain you get the gist. My only advice it to buy fish from breeders that you know have great fish.
 
Yeah both of you guys make good points.

I am really going for the WC young w/ good food and raised well versus the selectively bred captives. Do you think that, given the same food and care, a nice WC fish will always be nicer or a nice CB fish will be nicer?

Edit: be nicer as in look better.
 
It depends. Lots of variables.

Captive-bred (not necessarily line-bred) cichlids can look just as brilliant as the wild caughts (much of their beauty and color is inherent). Overbreeding or interbreeding, however, can diminish quality overtime.

In species where the fish's position in the tank's pecking order affects displayed vibrant coloration, a sub-dominant wild caught may not be as colorful as a dominant 'overbred' captive-bred fish in the same tank.

I've heard of some wild caughts not attaining their full coloration due to their inability to adapt to life in a tank (however, their genetic material is passed down to their progeny, which is why, in many cases, the offspring of wild caughts are widely sought out).
 
I am of the opinion that for color wild caught are no better than any tank raised. (Only get wild caught if you are breeding and want to keep from inbreeding too much.)


I could show you tons of fish that are more colorful than there normal wild brethren. But you can always find some beautiful wild caught too. Case in point look at German reds, OB peacocks, this blood peacock, most albinos, ie the list goes one and on. But then of course you aren't even getting fish that can be really found in the wild. Is a wild Taiwan Reef more color full than a Tank raised, I don't know. But just so you know wild caughts tend to be beaten up a little and they are usually more shy and more likely to become sub-dominate if put into tanks with tank raised.

There are a decent amount of threads over the debate on getting wild caughts or not. And what it really boils down to is the only reason you would go with wild caughts is if you can't find the fish tank raised or if you want to breed wild caught.
 
My 2 cents....

Buy from a good dealer,
Feed quality foods,
Stable, clean water,
Tankmates.
 
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