Cacatuoides Color ID and Age

[livierrr]

Curious about my little cacatuoides guy's color and age is. I understand he may be too young to really know what color he's going to be, but just curious, and also curious when I might be able to ID if not now. Hard to tell in the pictures, but his anal fin does have a yellow/orange tint to it. I can't seem to find anything online of comparisons of juveniles. The middle picture makes it look like there's some black to his tail but that's just the background showing through.

Can't exactly measure him, but he's somewhere between 1-1.5 inches long by my eyeball estimate.

 

[Mike Wise]

To me he is a double red cacatuoides.

 

[livierrr]

I hope so!! I was starting to wonder if he was an orange flash. Which I would still be happy with, as I've been looking for an apisto for months and my local store finally got some in and I didn't even care about color in the moment. And I would be happy with any color, I did REALLY want a red.

What would you guess his age is? And how quick do they grow? I'm letting him grow out before moving him to his permanent home in a 20 gal tall

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I was starting to wonder if he was an orange flash.

I'd guess they are "Orange Flash", purely because "chequering" in the caudal <"fin is the dominant gene">. All my offspring were <"chequered">

I also think that "Orange Flash" was line bred from "Double Red" (and "Double Red" line bred from wild)

I kept A.cactuoides for a couple of years, and if you don't select for fin colour you get a range of red, orange <"and yellow fins">, with varying degrees of colour in terms of fins, involved, area and intensity.

cheers Darrel

 

[livierrr]

Hi all,

I'd guess they are "Orange Flash", purely because "chequering" in the caudal <"fin is the dominant gene">. All my offspring were <"chequered">

I also think that "Orange Flash" was line bred from "Double Red" (and "Double Red" line bred from wild)

I kept A.cactuoides for a couple of years, and if you don't select for fin colour you get a range of red, orange <"and yellow fins">, with varying degrees of colour in terms of fins, involved, area and intensity.

cheers Darrel

Yeah that's why I was thinking that as well. I will say, however, that when my store first got them in, they did have this guy (they post youtube updates of what they get in every week, so I went back to the video to get a screen grab) and this guy was gone by the time I made it to the store to get one, but this guy is definitely a red. Can a pair produce different color variations (like labrador retrievers)?

 

[Mike Wise]

Darrel is right, it is an orange flash. Yes, the fish can produce different colors if the strains are crossed.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Can a pair produce different color variations (like labrador retrievers)?

They can, Apistogramma cacatuoides is a <"polychromatic species"> (or <"species complex">). Because these are line bred you are going to get variations on a red / orange theme, rather than the whole colour range.

cheers Darrel

 

[livierrr]

Hi all,

They can, Apistogramma cacatuoides is a <"polychromatic species"> (or <"species complex">). Because these are line bred you are going to get variations on a red / orange theme, rather than the whole colour range.

cheers Darrel

Interesting. Only fish breeding I've ever looked into is the easy ones, molly fish, for feeder fish for our pond of bass and sunfish and our long nose gar. Never had to think about genetics or colors or anything like that