odd coloration on female festae tail fin, is this normal?

[philipraposo1982]

My festae is around 10 months old, about 4-4.5 inches. overall colors are coming in nicely.

I just recently noticed within the last week some wierd coloration on her tail fin which I wanted to check with you folks if this is normal. Its forming from the middle and widening fairly quickly (like less than a week).

It went from being a thin line in the fin to a triangular shape. best pics I could get on my phone.. sorry.

Let me know your thoughts.

The fish seems in really good health otherwise.

 

[philipraposo1982]

Here is another photo from dec 16th, you can see no marking on the tail at this time.



View attachment 1351183 View attachment 1351184 View attachment 1351185 View attachment 1351186

 

[A201]

The tail blotch doesn't look like an illness. It's positioned too perfectly in the tail split. My guess is a melanin / pigment blotch. Probably harmless. Nice looking Festae.

 

[philipraposo1982]

So do you think it will end up making her tail fin look were or should she color up normally over time?

 

[A201]

My guess is things will level out as she grows and end up looking a lot like my Festae avatar pic.

 

[duanes]

Looks normal to me.

some females I had

 

[philipraposo1982]

I don't see a dark area on any of your festae's tail fins...

 

[duanes]

It may be just your festae's location variant has favored a darker coloration. Environmental factors often dictate the colors suited to a certain location.
If dark colors helps it survive in a certain shaded or dark substrate area (maybe only a few miles down river), those are "selected" by factors such as predation which allows a gene pool characteristics to reproduce and survive, and may determine what is caught and sent from that area to the aquarium trade.
For example the Chuco intermedia below I kept, both variants are the same species, but from two separate areas, and the color differences are quite noticeable (to me anyway).
intermedia species 1


below intermedia species 2 much more yellow, less spotting


In certain places these location variants may be noticed, by local fishermen, and separated as a marketing tool, but for instance where I live almost all cichlids are called Mojarras by fishermen, it could be a Cribroheroa, Amphilophus, Amatitlania or Andinoacara but to the locals they are all basically just Mojarras, the difference may only take effect when it comes to Parachromis types, which simply all Guapotes.
Another popular example in aquariums these day might be all the different Herichthys location variants available.
1st Herichthys carpintus "chairell

another I kept years before the chairell, H tamasopensus, now different enough (DNA ) to warrant separate species status

 

[philipraposo1982]

While I get what your saying and do agree, my festae has odd coloration marking on her tail fin which is not normal. It makes the fin looks split. I have never seen a festae with this darker section on the tail fin.

I don't believe this is a overall color different based on location but rather a color pattern deformation.

 

[duanes]

Location variations in festae can be quite dramatic.
Here is the first festae I kept around 15 years ago, a bit of dark in upper area of the caudal.

A few years later this variant

both females.