questions about coloration

[jv_xbishop]

in general, how does the colorations for apisto such as agassizii or Cacatuoide get passed on to the offspring? for example, if i mate a tripple red male with maybe a regular female or maybe even a wild female, would the offsprings turn out all tripple red because of the male or will the offsprings be mixed with colors of the male and female. is the male gene/coloration dominant to the female? i'm just curious on how the genes for coloration work.

what do you guys recommend using to bring out the redness or coloration in apistos? what do you guys use? i use frozen cyclopeeze for my agassizii but i kinda hate it because it melts pretty quick and some of the cyclopeeze will fall to the ground and go to waste. oh, and i try to give a little at a time, again still falling to the bottom. i also feed them live blackworms. how helpful are blackwoms for coloration and in comparison to cyclopeeze? is there anything else that will float while at the same time help bring out the redness in my agassizii and of course taste good for the agassizii to even eat it? thanks

jay

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I'm not sure there is a scientific reference for the expression of colour genes in Apistogramma. From reading through a few of the postings we've had on this forum, it looks like the genetics are not strictly mendelian, (with just dominant and recessive genes) but some combinations of genes act together (bit like hair or eye colour in Humans). Have a look here: <http://www.forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=8766>. From personal experience, more highly pigmented parents give more highly pigmented offspring, and starting from a double red pair, and not line breeding for colour, (but for shape and health) the resulting male offspring are more heavily spotted than the original male, but not as red. I'm pretty sure someone (Apistomaster?) line bred "Orange Flash", and found that the gene for spotting is dominant, so mating an Orange flash male with Triple Red female with give mainly (or all?) spotted offspring.

The second question is more straight forward, and there is a fairly complete answer here: <http://www.forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?p=45868>, towards the end of the post.

cheers Darrel

[viejo]

The freeze dried version of cyclopeeze floats a lot longer & is probably the best form of red pigments that I have found to date. As far as blackworms are concerned, they are low or lacking in carotenoid pigments but could & probably do; supply some of the other building blocks for good coloration, I would say that we are still pretty much in the dark as to what these might be. I; for one, would like to find a natural method of intensifying yellow pigments.

[Sharpfish]

To my understanding foods high in beta carotenes will produce a better red coloration. Shrimps and other crustaceans are high in beta carotene. I would imagine shrimp pellets or flake may produce the same effect. It may make the reds and oranges marginally more intense. The best way would be to start with quality fish and good genetics.

[chris1932]

For quite some time Discus breeders have used foods that contain Paprika to bring out the vivid reds. Not sure if it works with Apistogramma. I prefer wilds anyway

[viejo]

For good red coloration, you want to use a food with a lot of canthaxanthin (cyclopeez, etc.) paprika is not all that effective as the fish are not set up to process the carotene as a pigment. A long photoperiod with 'brightish' full spectrum lighting also helps, as does chelated iron in the water or food (or both). Contrary to popular myth, fish normally lose color genetically over generations, it is very possible to raise tank-raised specimens that are at least equal to wild caught using the above methods. That said, I still would like to find a good precursor for good yellow (not orange :)) coloration.