when can I expect my lil orinos to start spangling?

[Cohazard]

Out of 11 baby orinos I picked up in january, I am down to 6.


The smallest is 2", the largest about 3.5", they are all eating tilapia fillet.

So far they're just kinda silvery, not even a gold color I thought they would be.

I wasn't running any lighting on their tank except from teh tank next to theirs, but starting today i'm using an LED light on their tank.

This probably gets asked alot but at what size will they start spangling and showing some true colors?

I'm anxious to see the blues and greens now that they're off feeders.

Are their colors affected by the tank environment?

 

[bassinmike85]

mine started at almost 3" so yours should be soon

Sent from my HTC Wildfire S using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[johno27]

I find water quality can effect cichlas color a lot. So can the color of the substrate/background

Here are mine at around 3" on 9-8-2011

Here they are on 9-22-2011

10-8-2011

11-2-2011

12-28-2011

last week


I would say another inch or two and you will see them spangle up and turn green. But that is just my experience with mine

 

[kevinfleming21]

round the 5-6 inch mark you will see a big difference

 

[wheatgerm]

/\ /\ /\ agreed
mine started getting greed at about 4-5 then went spangled from 6-10 (and went from green to kinda gold) now, growing out of 10 inches they are going back green and losing some of the body spangling

 

[Houdini89]

5 +

 

[joshs801]

5 +

agreed, 5 inch is when it is really starting to spangle good

 

[gangster]

start stuffin the tilapia w/ pellets...or rollin em in crushed pellets. Pellets will also bring out better color. That tank light will help as well.