Senegals and their colors

[Dairy]

I was just wondering. Why does my senegal polys differ in their color? Does pigmentation differ with individual polys?

The reason I suspect is that one poly grew up with a dark substrate,






and the other poly grew up with a neutral substrate.






But both of them are now in a tank with a dark substrate. Shouldn't both of them have dark colors by now (since about 5 months ago)? I took the pics with and without flash to see the colors better

 

[Darth Scohin]

The deformed one looks young Senegal darken with age

 

[Cohazard]

The color of a polypterus can vary genetically. Senegals often express variation ranging from brown, to grey, to green.

But as you pointed out, they are also affected by their environment.

It's been my experience too that while growing, they seem to 'lock' into a certain shade of color and contrast depending on the environment they are kept in.

I now think that a substrate with various shades of brown, tan, red, and olive green, is a good mix to keep bichirs over, to help their contrast and color.

 

[Dairy]

Well, i bought the deformed one first so I'm gonna say he's older. And about six months later i bought he darker one.

I think i do agree that they seem to 'lock' their color at a point. The lighter one spent more time in the tan substrate so maybe that's where he 'locked' his color which is lighter. Hmm...

I like the 'sound' of olive green . Now where to put my black sand? Lol

 

[Moloch]

Yeah...my younger sen is pretty dark & the older is a pretty pale tan at this point. They've been all over the spectrum though... I bought them about a month apart. Both were about 2-3" when I brought them home, and both were quite pale. I kept them on black gravel in a 20gal for a good while & they each darkened up within a few weeks of being put in the tank.

Then I moved them to a 65 a few weeks to a month later and I had light tan play sand in there for about a few weeks. The smaller of the two kept his dark color during this time, the larger started to hit a growth spurt and started to get a lot lighter.

At this point I decided I didn't like the play sand & went and got some 3m colorquartz, now I have a 70/30 mix of dark brown (red under lights)/black sand. The smaller is still dark, the larger is still light.

And just this week I've moved them into a barebottom tank, their colors are still the same. Hopefully going to have some black sand to go in there before too terribly long.



So...in summation....I have no idea, mine are all over the place. The 'lock' theory makes sense to me.

 

[tempest_brood1]

the "lock" theory also seems logical to me... i've seen it with my senies before...

 

[Dairy]

yeah the lock theory seems to make sense. Weird though...my darker sen recently decided to become hyperactive, and I notice that he became a little bit lighter... Can physical activity also affect pigmentation?? I dunno maybe I'm just imagining it lol