matsout Posted June 23, 2010 Share Posted June 23, 2010 Hi everyone, Just curious, my beautiful male Lab has really dark solid black fins and really golden yellow etc like a male should, but lately he's been showing areas, (particularly his underside and around the face) that appear as black patches on his body. To describe what it looks like, it looks like black has rubbed onto him, I know thats not what has happened (obviously), but it's the best way I could explain what the random patches looks like. From a distance he looks dirty compared to the others. I'm just curious what this is a sign of and why e yellows do this. The way I understand it is that a high quality Lab male wont have any random black on the body, only on the fins where it's suppose to be. Regards Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LithoMan Posted June 23, 2010 Share Posted June 23, 2010 Hi Matt only thing i have ever noticed is when my male becomes dominant and in breeding mode he gets rub on style black patchs and once he stops breeding he goes back to a flawless electric yellow.. but i aint no expert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFishkeeper Posted June 23, 2010 Share Posted June 23, 2010 In my experience, dominant males will often get a black blush around the face and belly, may be due to hormones as he displays to the females and warns off other males. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcloughlin2 Posted June 23, 2010 Share Posted June 23, 2010 Extremely good quality yellows won't show any black smudges on their body at any stage. These lines are few and far between now though as the market has been flooded with poor quality yellows by some greedy breeders. As per the above replies it seems to be more prone on dominate males and I'd assume that it is some form of colouring related to that fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matsout Posted June 23, 2010 Author Share Posted June 23, 2010 Thanks guys for the quick replies. This makes sense cause he is deffinatly my dominant electric yellow male, and he has been harrassing females lately and is quite often all flared up, looks spectacular with the really dark black. But so far I haven't got any female yellows holding, would be good though. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfy Posted June 23, 2010 Share Posted June 23, 2010 To describe what it looks like, it looks like black has rubbed onto him A 'sooty' type appearance can also be caused by poor water quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucem Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 Are these marks REALLY a sign of poor quality fish, or are they just less desirable to most hobbyists? I for one certainly like nice bright yellows without black markings. Is it like straight bars on fish like demasoni, where there are pictures of wc fish out there that don't have straight bars, but most hobbyists are looking for straight bars? Could it be that for electric yellows that don't show the black markings they are actually more line bred than wc fish? I've never read anything about what might be 'normal' markings in the lake. I honestly don't know the answer to this, but I think there is a big difference between 'poor quality' and 'less desirable' fish colouration/markings. Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rosco Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 Extremely good quality yellows won't show any black smudges on their body at any stage. I have to agree, sorry Bruce (although I do concur that it is a "less desirable trait" but people are just not interested). I had a dominant male that did that very thing and I would get a certain percentage of fry that show show these "undesirable" black marks, so I removed him and sure enough the fry are now very clean. He looks good in display tank just not after a water change when the girlies are around Mainly because the next guy in line has shown no such markings in any mood. It was a real shame because when he wasn't in the mood he was a stunner. cheers rosco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucem Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 No need to be sorry Rossco. I'm still more convinced that colour is not necessarily a reflection on quality in L caeruleus when there are blue, white and yellow forms in the lake. Off the top of my head I'm not certain where all these forms occur, but there could be slight, natural morphological variations within the species, for example where white transitions into the yellow form. Maybe the ladies like the black markings! Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foti Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 sorry double post...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foti Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 No need to be sorry Rossco. I'm still more convinced that colour is not necessarily a reflection on quality in L caeruleus when there are blue, white and yellow forms in the lake. Off the top of my head I'm not certain where all these forms occur, but there could be slight, natural morphological variations within the species, for example where white transitions into the yellow form. Maybe the ladies like the black markings! Bruce How is anyone to ever know if female eyellows prefers a male with black marks or not ! wth im sure that they are meant to be yellow so less black the better if blue or white less black the better its been said from as long as i remember black markings dirty blood line ! you bring up a very good point bruce and you are very navigable on this matter but if dirty breeds are breed then dirty breeds will be sold and bred again, till yellows are more black that yellow. black bars permanent patches of black im kinda picturing a eyellow that is more a black fish with light yellow markings when trying to breed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LithoMan Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 are you guys taling about black barring or a slight smudge look when flaring up while breeding cause the black bars that i have seen on some i agree bad bloodline the smudge look that comes and goes i think its possibly normal... only happens during angry time when breeding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matsout Posted June 26, 2010 Author Share Posted June 26, 2010 I'm refering to just black smudges no barring at all. It just appears as if black dust has rubbed off fins onto his body, as I said I know that's not what occurs but the best I can explain it. Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenzy Posted June 27, 2010 Share Posted June 27, 2010 A photo would be nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sicj Posted June 27, 2010 Share Posted June 27, 2010 Hi I had an awsome colony of yellows and it was weird. Sometimes they would be lovely pure golden yellow and other times they would have that black dust on them. They were all healthy and i had thousands of fry from them. Dont be worried. If they are eating well and are active and acting like normal then you have nothing to worry about. Link --->http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2519697340057054393DQLktr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matsout Posted June 27, 2010 Author Share Posted June 27, 2010 Hey guys these two shots were the best I could do, normally the black is alot darker than this but this gives you and idea. http://www.aceforums.com.au/index.php?act=...si&img=1812 http://www.aceforums.com.au/index.php?act=...si&img=1811 http://www.aceforums.com.au/index.php?act=...si&img=1814 http://www.aceforums.com.au/index.php?act=...si&img=1813 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LithoMan Posted June 27, 2010 Share Posted June 27, 2010 hi mate i think you posted the pics wrong i cant open them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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