Male Festae color variations, photos enclosed

[at2]

I wish I could find a festae like these around VA beach.

 

[twinturbo]

so if every1 else agrees & says it, then it must not be true. logical, NOT! lets see I have bred many many broods of festae. I have grown them from egg to 7-8 inches. I must not know anything about festae, NOT. anyway knock urself out about all the different "varieties/colors" of festae.

Thats what everyone else says, not true.

 

[BrtnBoy449]

awsome fish

 

[iraengr]

yeah i guess you just sort of KNOW, don't you???

once you've had a festae or five...

 

[Piranhanut]

I moved the little F2 green male into the tank with all my F0s the other day and no one has beat him up being so small. but I did notice a big color change, I, assuming from stress. He looks like the other 2 plain males loosing his coloring. Stress obviously plays a big role in coloring with these fish. He hasnt colored back yet and its been around four days now.

 

[ammerman19]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there is only one color variant of Amphilophus festae.

There are several factors that may make your festae appear to be different, such as food, quality of water, substrate, and generation. Obviously wild caugth festae are gonna be much much better lookin than any captive bred. All the fish you have currently are gonna look relatively the same. Male festae don't really color up properly until they are 10" or larger. Until then, you can't judge how they are gonna look as adult by their current appearance. The fish you posted are simply showin stress bars, which doesn't nesseccarily mean they are stressed. It has a lot to do with the attitude of the fish and what not as well. Plus having them all on a darker substrate is going to influence their coloration, with it being much more likely to have bands.

Having said that, only your FIRST THREE pictures look like true male festae. The bottom two pictures have the characteristic "Y" bar that is typical of festae, but they are lackin the SMALL occelated spot at the base of the caudual. Instead, they have the LARGE occelated spot at the base of caudual fin, which indicates Uro. Which makes me wonder if they are PURE festae, or possibly a hybridization of uro and festae. Hope that helps a little, cheers!!

I agree with all of this except those are all Festae. There is no Uro in any of them.

 

[Marc280106]

Piranahanut, seems you have come to the right conclusion here now. The different colour variations you're seeing in your Festae is simply a dominant and subdominant coloration.
Depending on how tuff he's feeling, my male morphs from the gold to the green at any given moment. But the bars only appear when he's not at all comfortable with what's going on around him ie. when i use the gravel vac. Once mature, males will always loose their bars. They will only regain or retain them if there are stressed.
Keep in mind, appearences will vary from individual to individual. So some slightly different colour variaton is not uncommon.
Just a thought, i think you should try removing the other males into one of the unused tanks. I bet my money that one of these guy's will take on the colour you like (Dominant.).
I also feel (as i advised you once before) that your established pair will feel alot more comfortable about spawning.

what I know is that there are two strains of festaes; the first is the black strain
most evident in the females, the bars on the female are deep black; the second is the blue strain which the female has light blue vertical stripes: the rest
depends on mood. The two come from diferent parts of south america..
just my two cents......... Nice fish!!!!

I'll refund your two cents for that statement.
The blue you speak of is the everyday colouration and the black is breeding dress.

 

[carpediem]

I agree with those that indicate that those are all festae, no uros, no hybrids.

The differences in male color variation come mainly from environment and mood. Water quality, stress level, dominance, and the presence of other fish can all have an effect on the color pattern. Juvenile fish (like those in the pics) are also more likely to change colors while mature adult fish have a more stable color pattern.

 

[Piranhanut]

Yes Marc, I posted the above in your defence. I figured it out with my experiment. Your fish shows a little more green in your pics vs mine. Dose it change to more of a gold with mood similar to my dominant or dose it stay with the green hugh?

 

[Marc280106]

In my defence?

He'll show the goldish colouration when displaying for the female, but yes there's generally always a green hue to him. I'm thinking this is something that comes with age/maturity, as he himself used to look alot like the colour of yours. If i'm not mistaken my boy is a little older than yours, about 18 months. Correct me if i'm wrong.
The display of colour and bars slightly showin, (that you see in my avator) i put down to a threatening/defensive colouration, as he always shows this colouration when i put a mirror on the end of the tank. He'll take a stance as if preparing for a fight and won't move unless he see's movement, then he'll attack his reflection, with intent to kill. (Great for photo's.) The female on the other hand is not so hesitant with her reflection and will attack as soon as she see's herself..