Pale yellow labs.

[unknown_7]

I believe that I have posted this question before, but anyways, I have two yellow labs since they were babies and now they are about 3 months old. However, they are becoming paler and paler, they are a pale yellow-white and have a "washed out" appearance to them. Someone who answered my first post said they might be stressed out from aggression, but the aggression between then has gone down significantly, so I was wondering what are other possibilities. Thank you all in advance for all your posts.

 

[rich311k]

What size tank are they in? What other fish are in the tank? What are your water parameters?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

What kind of fish food are you feeding? You may need to switch brands. The NLS brand works great for African Cichlids, it really brightens up their coloration. Also, are you sure it is a true yellow lab and not one of the variants?

 

[malkore]

I have one pale lab, adn the other two are vivid 'sunshine' yellow. I think I have a variant, as his color never changes, and he doesn't look too skinny, nor does he act like he's stressed, ill, or weak.

 

[macman7010]

I kept and bred yellow labs for several years and saw a few that were permantly washed out, but it was a rarity. I would recommend a different food, and maybe increase the frequency of your feedings. I always found both the Omega One pellets and flakes turned great color for my African Cichlids including yellow labs. You could also look at feeding New Life Spectrum, it has a high crude protien count and is known to increase fish color.

 

[tetrin]

to stress malkore and macman's comments, i'd like to quote Neil, toirtis' friend, who IMO, is an authority on the subject -

While we're on the subject of coloration seen in L. caeruleus "Lion's Cove", I'll also add this for future reference.

IMO the initial two Labidochromis caeruleus "Electric Yellow" collected by Eric Fleet did not come from Mbowe Island as Ad Konings has previously suggested, but in fact came from Lion's Cove, with one of the fish carrying a recessive allele for the half white/half yellow variant.
Once their offspring were repeatedly inbred (for close to 20 years!), the result was the odd "Electric Yellow" lab showing up as the half white/half yellow variant found in Lion's Cove. (if you have two fish with a recessive allele (gene) there is a greater chance that the progeny will show that recessive trait) In the case of the 'electric yellows', unknown to Brichard at the time, there was another variant of L. caeruleus that lived in very close proximity to where the original pair were captured (Lion's Cove), with this variant being half yellow/half white. On the north side of the bay Konings has seen both variants, and this is a small bay to begin with. Also unknown to Brichard, one of those 'electric yellows' carried this recessive gene, which later due to 'line breeding' (ie inbreeding generations) these traits began to surface, and can still be seen today. At least this is my theory, as I've yet to see any documentation as to where the original pair were caught. Konings once stated he thought it was at Mbowe Island, but due to the reasons above I disagree. As previously mentioned some of these fish have washed out color, some actually look identical to the half white/half yellow variant, and some are somewhere in between the two.

Also, some of the 'normal' traits seen in WC labs such as vertical barring, and dark patches in the face/head area have become very pronounced in tank bred strains, due to many years of inbreeding.

In the wild these traits would never show up to the degree that they do now. All caused from the massive breeding of two fish that looked very similar at the time, with one of them carrying a gene that was passed on to all future generations. According to Konings ......

Quote:
"Since this mbuna has become a mainstay in the hobby and the numbers available to hobbyists are probably a hundred to a thousand times greater than the total population in the lake!"



Had the export of WC 'electric yellow' labs remained strong, these recessive genes could have been kept in check, but when the only breeding stock available was based on such a small gene pool the results almost ruined this variant for good. Thankfully this species is once again being exported, and high quality breeders can once again be introduced to the gene pool.

this was taken from the following thread -
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=89428

 

[unknown_7]

Alright, I will try to change the food that I am feeding them and see what happens, thank you all for your help.