New Red Tail Species (likely click bait...)
- Thread starter coolcomfort
- Start date
Thank you for this
Nope…melanism is one of the more “normal” mutations like albinism. Pops up naturally in populations over time. Atleast it did before “we” stepped in with science during egg production ??
wednesday13
I looked through many of your postings for the past year and didn't see it. I think I was confused and might have recalled this post by Heliox instead and put words in your mouth. Sorry.Heliox's post #4 here https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/phantom-rtc.739916/
Your post, Russ, perhaps I recalled was perhaps this one but here you are talking about the man-made color morphs, not the natural albino or melanistic mutations. Plus you are talking about lighter-colored morphs. But the thread is the same. Probably conflated in my memory. So again, I recalled wrong. Sorry.
Post #17, same thread, page 2: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/phantom-rtc.739916/page-2#post-8395424
thebiggerthebetter
all good my friend ?, no worries. Dont mind sharing opinions on any type of color morph lol…
wednesday13
H
HELIOX
Russ, what's your take on Heliox's words? " Ive also had a couple of solid black rtcs, that basically grew up to be normals.. "
I mean, if these were natural, you posit that they should have stayed dark colored... right? So the conclusion would be they were not natural mutations... or might not be even mutations per se, but adaptation to the environment, within the means of normal RTC DNA.
I remember "black" FL gars Rodrigo was showing me at his shop. When the fishermen brought them to Rod, they were totally black, all 3 of them. Rod paid them as for the exceedingly rare morph. Put them in tank, they started to lighten up a lot. Put them on black substrate, dark tank, they started to darken a bit but never went back to the same initial jet black. Of course, his "suppliers" wouldn't tell him where they caught the gars, but chances are it was some special environment...
I wish people were more open with info and we all learn. But when $$$ gets involved, comradery goes out of the window haha...
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Russ, what's your take on Heliox's words? " Ive also had a couple of solid black rtcs, that basically grew up to be normals.. "
I mean, if these were natural, you posit that they should have stayed dark colored... right? So the conclusion would be they were not natural mutations... or might not be even mutations per se, but adaptation to the environment, within the means of normal RTC DNA.
I remember "black" FL gars Rodrigo was showing me at his shop. When the fishermen brought them to Rod, they were totally black, all 3 of them. Rod paid them as for the exceedingly rare morph. Put them in tank, they started to lighten up a lot. Put them on black substrate, dark tank, they started to darken a bit but never went back to the same initial jet black. Of course, his "suppliers" wouldn't tell him where they caught the gars, but chances are it was some special environment...
I wish people were more open with info and we all learn. But when $$$ gets involved, comradery goes out of the window haha...
Environment will always play a role in fish coloration as well as weather, temperature, water conditions, seasons etc. ive even read PH can and will cause fish to be darker or lighter. As u know im an avid fishermen and i see alot of this first hand through the year. One easy example is if it rains and sediment kicks up my local pike get much lighter. When the waters clear they go back to being super colorful. Those gar u saw probably just had a “tan” lol. The sun highly effects gar in the south. Lots of reports of melanistic fish that are just dark because of the sun, dark water and the environment their in at that time. A prime example of humans exploiting this is using white tank treatment or dark tank treatment to sway a fishes colors a certain way, make a sale and move on lol. Ive heard rodrigo uses certain medications to exploit fish colors also for a period of time then they go back to normal later on. Color morphs will always be an easy exploitation to buyers. Even worse these days as suppliers are getting smarter with treatments, some permanent, some not. Foods come into play also for reds/yellows. Ive seen red snapping turtles that were just fed red foods for years. Similiar to flamingos or other animals that turn pink/red with their normal diet in nature. As color morphs become more popular were seeing more exploitation for higher price tags. Just the way the world works lol… when i started fish keeping albinos were always cheaper for being “inferior” and thats honestly how i started keeping them. Id save lunch money, walk to the lfs and buy what i could at discount. Funny how much things change and what becomes “trendy” that was once not popular or desired at all. Id always get a discount on deformed or one eyed fish also and now things like short body are also more money and desirable.
I’m old school and hear this thread. Fully agree that all these things effect fish colouration as no doubt do changes in genes and genomes but I like you think of the albinos and the morphs as the cheaper less desirable fish cos that’s just how it always was. 40 years later and a lot has changed.
Im glad i caught the tail end of the “good old days” in my life time… these days id just like to go back lol
