eletric yellow beard

[donk1667]

i have a problum my ele. yellow lab has a 5 oclock shadow what is that ?

 

[WaterPond]

Mine has it too. Totally normal. From what i have read it shows they are mature.

 

[donk1667]

kool thanks WaterPond !

 

[Fishyfanatic]

It's ok to have the 5 o'clock shadow. I remember reading a few months ago that it has to do with the generation number. When our first lab started showing the "shadow" I freaked out and posted on AA. For months I was changing up the food trying to figure out what was wrong. lol Perfectly normal.

 

[Zagz]

One of my yellow's has such a 5 o'clock shadow we call him homer.

 

[donk1667]

Zagz all i can say to that is

 

[Zagz]

Homer

 

[toddnbecka]

Actually it depends on the genetics, not the generation number. I have a few yellow lab's from the lfs that have to be quite long descended from wild-caught that don't have the black around the face. The interesting thing to me is that I've seen others at the same shop mine came from that do have it. Usually the dominant male shows it but mine never has, even before he killed off the other adult male. I'm waiting for the fry to mature to see if any of them develop it, but their daddy is still clean.

 

[maxwell1295]

It's somewhat normal as there are wild caught fish that also exhibit this trait. "Bearding" and "barring" are things that are normal (but not very prevalent) in the wild and is considered to be an undesirable trait by breeders.

 

[donk1667]

nice fish zags and thanks all for the info