Egg color question.

[drudnick]

I am on my 3rd and 4th spawns of Apistogramma Incas. First 3 were with 1 female on the younger side. The newest one which was laid today is from a more recently acquired female who is older. The eggs from 1st female were always a clear to greyish color and all have hatched with great hatch rate. This new females are pinkish/red. I have read that apistos eggs are usually red, but this is first red bacth. So after all this babblng, the question is what will determine the color of the eggs? And why 1 female would lay different color than another, yet both should be fertile and hatch.

Dave

 

[aquaticclarity]

Dave,

Somewhere on the site there is a thread dealing with this question, but I’ll recap the basic accepted theory.

The egg color is directly related to the diet of the female laying the eggs. Baby brine shrimp, high in carotene, will lead to “red†eggs being produced. Other foods rich in carotene will also have this effect. Other diets lacking this pigment effecting substance will still produce viable eggs but tend to lack the pink/red color associated with Apistogramma eggs.

I’d guess that the newer female “Inca†you got was being fed baby brine shrimp and that its effects are still present in the fish and its eggs.

Jeff

 

[drudnick]

Yes, the guy I got them from mentioned all his fish, including adults got live BBS everyday. Whereas I feed mine mostly frozen brine shrimo and blood worms. Along with live brine shrimp on occasion as well. Thanks for the input. The red eggs look cool, but as long as they fertile and hatch I dont care what color they are...lol nice to know info though. I looked, and actually the eggs are bright red with the exception of the tips. they are the grey color that my other females eggs were. Im excited for this spawn because she looks to have about 100 eggs in there at least. The younger female usually produced about 50-60 eggs

 

[blueblue]

Regarding this topic, i remember i also read the thread a long time ago.
However, besides diet, the species also matters. For example, from my
own experience, fertilized eggs of T. candidi and A. diplo are both almost white while those of A. eliza and A. mendezi are both orange/red...
For my fish, i always feed them with bbs, together with some branded
pet food from ADA (AP-1 series), Sera, Tetra (T. bits), Tropical, etc...

Are there some counter examples to the colour of eggs of the species
i mentioned above? Let's share

 

[drudnick]

I think in this case its diet. Because the egg color is diff within 2 females of same species. I know the one with red eggs ate live BBS everyday before I got it.

 

[Mike Wise]

A. diplotaenia eggs are usually clear because they lay their eggs on the sand in the wild. Bright red eggs would easily be seen by egg predators. The same is basically true for T. candidi.