Inusual trifasciata colour

[rappaz]

Hi all, a very good friend has sent me this pic of of one of his trifasciata. It's a young male about 3cm more or less. What do you think? He's going to become more blue when he grow up?

Thanks and sorry for my bad english.

 

[gerald]

Looks like he's already grown up, based on those dorsal rays. Either he has low melanin production, or the bare tank and light-colored surroundings are making him stay pale. He might darken if placed in a tank with dark sand and more wood, plants, rocks, etc. Was he tank-bred, and if so, do any of his brothers and sisters look like this, or are they all normal colored?

 

[Mike Wise]

I agree with Gerald. It's fully mature. If only 3 cm then it is a stunted fish (not a problem really, breeding-wise). It appears to be a xanthistic sport to me.

 

[rappaz]

As my friend says to me, he has been always as yellow as you can see in the picture, he has been in a "blackwater biotope" for to or tyree months and didn't show any diference.

I don't know what is a "xanthistic sport" fish, could it be a mutation that could be interesting to breed or it's a defect?

 

[gerald]

The chemical pathway toward synthesizing melanin involves some intermediate steps that can produce yellow and red pigments. In a "xanthistic" mutation, some or all of the melanin production gets side-tracked and makes yellow pigment instead of black. As long it doesn't have any other ill-health side-effects, it could be an interesting mutation to breed.

 

[rappaz]

thanks you gerald, so i'll try to get that pair and to breed them, i'll tell you something in the future.