My ob zebras have been producing a few all black fry for the past few spawning. Has anyone seen this before? The pic is of two smaller ones but they retain the full black coloring as they grow.
Attachments
-
2.6 MB Views: 477
Exactly. The $64K question right now is who are the parents of these little guys. And what do you mean by 'a few,' percentage-wise. And these fry are viable, and grow into all-black adults? I've not seen this before, and it's really interesting.Deeda said:Do you have pics of the adults? Any other cichlids in the tank with them?
I agree, and like I said- keep us posted. I'm thinking that these could grow up to be very pretty fishes. :thumb:drewsda45 said:Thanks for the detailed information about how the pigmentation works in OBs. I was planning on crossing the blackest fry after they grow out. It truly will be interesting to see what I get.
That's a good point. For sure the plan going forward would be different if all the black fry are one sex, in which case crosses to their OB sibs would be the next step. :thumb:noki said:Seems like you have a parent combo that is producing another level of mutation, very interesting. Raise both the all black and some orange black fry, and see if the all black has both sexes or whether they are just one sex. You may have to breed an all black one with their OB sibling to try to get more black fry. Share some pics when they get bigger!
Zebras get sexually mature when they get over 2.5", and males look and act like males, females stay the same. If you keep juveniles only in a tank, a few young males act dominant early in the group. Venting juveniles is not easy, so don't worry about that.drewsda45 said:Good point. I never thought about the black ones potentially being one sex. I'll post more pics as they grow. They'll be difficult to sex so if anyone has ideas for help with that I'd welcome them. I haven't developed a keen enough eye for venting fish.