Midas colour question

[Rusty91]

Hi,
I tried to research myself but couldn‘t find an answer. My question is, if you have a white amphilophus (or white with some orange spots, whatever..), let‘s say 7/8 inch, is it possible that it can still get orange? Same question other way around? Was discussing with a friend and my opinion on this was, that either it gets orange or white, but can not change from white to orange at a bigger size.
I hope my question is clear ?
If not I‘m sry ?

 

[Deadeye]

duanes Jexnell Rocksor RD.
To my knowledge, white is the most extreme fading gets, so I don’t think it can go back from there.

 

[duanes]

Almost all Amphilophines (whatever species) look very much the same at a small sizes and acquire more permanent colors as they age.

The above A amarillo above, became this as adults below.

A flaveolus below at 1"

Became this at 5"

And because most "midas complex" sold these days, are Amphilophine hybrids (Unless you got them from a breeder that is very particular about not combining wild caught species, or maybe? if you saw that the parents were creamsicle, its anybody's guess.
And especially if bought from a LFS its even more a wild goose chase.
Even striped parents can produce orange, calico or white morphs, just as orange variants can produce banded or even predominantly black morphs.
If I were you I'd enjoy the surprise, whatever it is. Because it may change appearance several times during its life span.
Because up until recently all the various Great Lakes of Nicaragua Amphilophines were considered one or maybe two species, they were unwittingly allowed to hybridize, making 98% of all midas/red devil available, simply mutts.
But at this point there are over a dozen recognized species (yet hard to tell apart unless you know the lake.they or their parents were caught in) or have access to DNA analysis.

 

[Rusty91]

Almost all Amphilophines (whatever species) look very much the same at a small sizes and acquire more permanent colors as they age.
View attachment 1498227
The above A amarillo above, became this as adults below.
View attachment 1498228
A flaveolus below at 1"
View attachment 1498229
Became this at 5"
View attachment 1498230
And because most "midas complex" sold these days, are Amphilophine hybrids (Unless you got them from a breeder that is very particular about not combining wild caught species, or maybe? if you saw that the parents were creamsicle, its anybody's guess.
And especially if bought from a LFS its even more a wild goose chase.
Even striped parents can produce orange, calico or white morphs, just as orange variants can produce banded or even predominantly black morphs.
If I were you I'd enjoy the surprise, whatever it is. Because it may change appearance several times during its life span.
Because up until recently all the various Great Lakes of Nicaragua Amphilophines were considered one or maybe two species, they were unwittingly allowed to hybridize, making 98% of all midas/red devil available, simply mutts.
But at this point there are over a dozen recognized species (yet hard to tell apart unless you know the lake.they or their parents were caught in) or have access to DNA analysis.

Thank you very much, pretty informative ??

 

[Jexnell]

Young Amphilophus are typically silver with black bars hide me colors. Around 2 to 4 in size they start peeling to the adult coloration.

I got a batch of Saggitae around the 2in size. A couple had already started to peel when they arrived. The rest peeled within a few months.