technical term for pink convict???

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"The aquarium strain of the convict cichlid is descended from founders collected from Lakes Atitlan and Amatitlan in Guatemala, the type localities of Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus."

I never knew this... I'd assume he's referring to the convicts that farms have been breeding for 50+ years?

Any pictures of freshly collected "convicts" from these places?

Matt
 
Thanks for inquiring Mo! Very interesting!

I've never heard of the term "oligomelanic" before... a quick google search showed that the red bay snook also exhibits this mutation? But nothing as to what it even is. Anyone know?
 
no one?

oligo means "few or scanty" and melanic, is obviously coming from the root of melanin, so it would be something like "little pigment"

so is that the same thing as leucism or is their a difference?
 
Just thought I'd start by giving a shout out to Chris (cchhcc). Hey buddy, happy Canada Day! :)


Any pictures of freshly collected "convicts" from these places?

I'm guessing no one has collected from these areas for many years, the pollution in these waters is staggering. http://srdis.ciesin.columbia.edu/cases/guatemala-004-en.html

In 2009, the Global Nature Fund designated Guatemala's Lake Atitlan as its "Threatened Lake of the Year."

While LFS "convicts" should probably always be suspect of being hybrids of sorts, I suspect that some of the older farms are still breeding stock from these original imports - don't you think, Matt? I mean unless a farmer in FL was froze out, or somehow lost all of his original stock, there's really no reason why one couldn't still be buying direct descendents from the original imports.
 
Yes - Happy Canada Day (my mom is Canadian)!

It would be cool to compare the DNA from farm stock with those caught around Lake Atitlan (if any remain)... who knows if they're authentic. It's really hard for man to not try to make fish "better" than they are in the wild!

Wild (and wild-type) cons are such a variable lot of fish. I have some from Rio Grande de Mategalpa, Nicaragua (brought back by Jeff Rapps last year) that seem to max out at ~4" and females are just slightly smaller (but with bright orange bellies)... while I have some from Costa Rica (Rio Cubayo) that seem to get 6-7"... while I also have some from Rio Claro, Honduras that males max out at about 5"...but females only about 2" (I have some original F1s from Ken from ~2008)...

Matt
 
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