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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / April 2004Jack Dempsey color changes???????
I bought a Jack Dempsey cichlid from PetsMart last week. At the store, he was yellow with a black lateral line. When the lady netted him, his yellow changed to dark gray, and he got black bands on him. Looks just like a convict. I have had him for a week, and he still hasn't changed back to yellow. I know that dempseys change color, but why isn't he changing back? He looks healthy and has a good appetite. TIA Cookie A yellow JD eh? Sounds more like a Salvini you have there. He/she will color back up with time. Males will turn mostly grey with maturity and females stay yellow with a red spot on the belly if that's what you have. Could be a number of things though....good luck.  Signaturejp >I bought a Jack Dempsey cichlid from PetsMart last week. At the store, > he was yellow with a black lateral line. When the lady netted him, his [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Cookie I was at a store just yesterday and they had a yellow fish that I didn't recognize. It sort of looked like a jack demsey though. Sure enough, the tank label said "gold jack dempsey". Probably another hybrid. > A yellow JD eh? Sounds more like a Salvini you have there. He/she will color > back up with time. Males will turn mostly grey with maturity and females [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > > > Cookie > I was at a store just yesterday and they had a yellow fish that I didn't > recognize. It sort of looked like a jack demsey though. Sure enough, the > tank label said "gold jack dempsey". > > Probably another hybrid. So, it is a JD? It has a spot (just like that on oscars) at the base of the tail. It has some irridescent blue/green spots on the head and fins. --Cookie Cookie, can you get a picture of it and put it up on a site? Think it would be easier to figure out what it might be. Signaturejp >> I was at a store just yesterday and they had a yellow fish that I didn't >> recognize. It sort of looked like a jack demsey though. Sure enough, [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > --Cookie > Cookie, > can you get a picture of it and put it up on a site? Think it would be > easier to figure out what it might be. jp, Sure. I am at work now, but when I get home, I will do that. --Cookie > So, it is a JD? It has a spot (just like that on oscars) at the base > of the tail. It has some irridescent blue/green spots on the head and > fins. > > --Cookie Hey Cookie -- Look closely at the dorsal fin (the fin on his/her back). If it's a Dempsey the upper edge of the fin is bright red. If not, then you've encountered a confused LFS. To my knowledge, this red strip is always present. --Mark even worse.....more hybrids....:( Signaturejp >I was at a store just yesterday and they had a yellow fish that I didn't > recognize. It sort of looked like a jack demsey though. Sure enough, the [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] >> > >> > Cookie > I was at a store just yesterday and they had a yellow fish that I didn't > recognize. It sort of looked like a jack demsey though. Sure enough, the > tank label said "gold jack dempsey". > Probably another hybrid. Not so fast, let's not jump on the "probably another hybrid" bandwagon without at least a little consideration to the fact that it could be a legitimate color morph. True, lots of hybrids out there, but don't dismiss a possibility out of hand without some evidence. It's just not scientific. Now, a Google Groups search on "gold jack dempsey" (with quotes) returns exactly two threads. This one and one from 1997 (I'd post the link but Google links are long and my newsreader complains about them). The 1997 thread claims it is a color morph. Not authoratative of course, but there was less a trend to hybridization back then as there is now IMO. Ok, I may have used the wrong term but aren't "color morphs" the result of in-breeding more anything else? That's how they get all the different "strains" of Discus afterall. How come we're not complaining about the inbreeding? > > I was at a store just yesterday and they had a yellow fish that I didn't > > recognize. It sort of looked like a jack demsey though. Sure enough, the [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > thread claims it is a color morph. Not authoratative of course, but there > was less a trend to hybridization back then as there is now IMO. > Ok, I may have used the wrong term but aren't "color morphs" the result of > in-breeding more anything else? > That's how they get all the different "strains" of Discus afterall. > How come we're not complaining about the inbreeding? In-breeding is not by itself a bad technique, although it is an easy to abuse technique. The biggest danger of in-breeding is the possibility of introducing genetically predisposed disorders (think about the problems some types of purebred dogs or cats have), usually caused by having too little genetic diversity. In the hands of a talented breeder who knows how to maintain genetic diversity and cull out fry with abnormalities, in-breeding is a perfectly fine tool to fix a color line. Also remember that some color morphs with fish are really rather easy to maintain genetic diversity when it's simple dominant/recessive gene(s) that control the color differences. Think pink and normal convicts. Pink is recessive to normal. If you want to introduce some genetic diversity, breed a pink to a few normals. This will yield fry that look normal, but carry the pink gene, called heterzygous in genetic terms (homozygous would have only one type of the gene, all pink or all normal in this case). Then cross the heterozygous fry back to a pink for approximately 50% pink fry yield, to heterozygous fry from the other batches for 25% pink fry or to another set of normals for some additional heterozygous fry (although this will yield homozygous normal fry as well, so while this has the most diversity by not breeding back to the original line, it's also the most tedious because there's no way to tell who has the pink gene and who doesn't other than by breeding). Still, it's messing with a species of fish and losing it's "natural" appearances. If we're against hybrids I think we should be against in-breeding as well. Just my thoughts. > In-breeding is not by itself a bad technique, although it is an easy to > abuse technique. The biggest danger of in-breeding is the possibility of [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > tedious because there's no way to tell who has the pink gene and who > doesn't other than by breeding). |
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