A. panduro solid yellow females

[Apistomaster]

Hi All,
I received 6, 1/4 inch A. panduro fry last summer which are now nice adults.
The one thing that surprised me is that all my females are solid yellow except for the head stripes and normal trim colors of the unpaired fins.
Is this a pretty common color variety? In the past my female A.panduro had some side blotches.
I ended up with 3 females and 1 male. I lost a couple when they were still small.

 

[Mike Wise]

I've not heard of solid yellow panduro females. It is now commonly bred so I wouldn't be surprised to see different domestic 'sports' appear.

 

[ed seeley]

I thought that the lateral spots didn't always appear until the females were mature? I thought I remember reading someone's account (probably Mary Bailey in PFK) that some females that didn't look after their young never showed the lateral blotch.

 

[Apistomaster]

Thanks for all your responses.
These are one year old A. panduro and they have spawned but have not raised any fry yet. They have eaten their first spawns. I plan on removing the next batch of eggs to just make sure I get some fry.
As soon as I can I will take some photos of these fish and post them.

I have seen many variations of the brooding patterns on both A. panduro and A. nissenji females so that for a particular strain of A. panduro to not have any black markings on their bodies doesn't entirely surprise me but I can see that it isn't something many other have seen yet. It seems to me like it would not take much selective breeding to arrive at the solid yellow.
The fish in question are of very good size and health although the male isn't any where nearly as colorful as the wild male I had from my first pair of this species I had. The female of the wild pair did have some black patterns when in her yellow phase brood colors.

I received these particular A. panduro from a fellow member of apistogramma.com but I can't remember who sent them to me now. I sold so many F1 L134 Leopard Frog plecos and A.cacatuoides last summer that I lost track of who sent me what except the 6 Dicrossus maculatus Zack(thedigitalfishroom) sent me. I have been trying to breed the 2 trios that developed from the 6 juvies I received from him.
The A. panduro were so small I was shocked but I think they were freebies sent along with 6 Taeniacara candidi fry I bought. 5 of those survived and all grew up to be males.

 

[Apistomaster]

Here are some photos of my atypically unmarked female A. panduro.
I am posting one shot of the male. This male and some related species like A. baenschi male seem to be very dull compared to the wild specimens I once had.

 

[Gillie]

I have a few siblings of your Panduro and a store has the very last brood from the parents. There is a huge mix of females with different markings. My female shows a typical pattern and my male along with the others have quite spectacular coloring and a pattern of 3 stripes in the caudal fin just like their wild father who was more 'smokey' blue in color than sky blue.
I also had the same issue with the Candidi(what a mess that was) but I got a few more that are females to go with the remaining male.

 

[Apistomaster]

Hi Phil,
That is interesting that there was so much variation of markings among all the different females from the same parents.
I have 3 females and the one male; lost a couple while they were still too small to sex. All 3 of my females share the same pattern.
I just took the photos today but afterwards i removed one female. Now the much harried male is a lot happier and can find some peace. The two females had been whomping on him despite the fact neither female had a spawn or fry to defend. As you can see in the photos, they were having some serious confrontations of their own.
A. panduro seem to be best kept in pairs rather than harems anyway but I was hoping that by trying a trio that the competition for a mate might help get the male to choose a mate. I hope I do get a brood so maybe some of the females will show the more typical markings. The all yellow phase isn't bad at all but just wasn't anything I'd ever seen among any of the nissenji complex females. If it were for the trim on their fins they almost could be mistaken for females of A. borelli

It sure was a disappointment to get 5 male T. candidi out of 5 fry raised. One male developed really late and had me going for awhile. I thought I had at least one female but not so. T. candidi are such a cool Dwarf cichlid.

I did end up with 2 trios of Dicrossus maculatus so ya win some and ya lose some. I'm pretty sure 2 of the females have spawned without my noticing since they have developed bright yellow ventral fins so there is some reason to be hopeful. It took me a long time to get around to finding them and T.candidi.
It will be easier to buy a pair of T. candidi than ever finding more D. maculatus so I feel lucky to have the one fairly rare species to work with.

 

[Gillie]

There are fish with typical patterns, missing a lateral spot on one side or the other, no markings on the belly and of course no body markings. It is very odd.

 

[Zack Wilson]

Hi Larry,

I thought I'd chime in here. I've noticed this variability in markings with my panduro before as well. In several of my spawns, I noticed that a very few lacked dark body markings, and even more were missing the body splotch on one side or the other. I personally preferred the more typical markings, so I never held any of these back for breeding, but I passed them on to others. I usually kept the more symetrically-marked females to breed. I've also noticed a good-deal of variability in the markings of my baenschi as well. I was actually very confused for a while as to why most of the female offspring failed to get the typical bumble-bee pattern that their parents had. With time most did get the striping, but some never did.

I'm glad to hear the maculatus are doing well. I had no worries that they would have a good home. I've been finding I get a very good ratio of males to females with my current breeding setups. pH fortunately doesn't seem to be a very critical factor (I've had them spawning in a range pH's from 3.83 to 6.5).