I agree the quality has dropped significantly.Over here I often see whole batches of very poor labs.I returned to keeping malawis after an absence of approx. 5 years and have been appauled by both quality and price of labs available ( 9 GBP - about $18 ? )for a 2.5" fish!!!!!
I think a lot of this is due to the fact that they are easily bred and readily sold.I was lucky to get nice specimens, and am giving the fry the best possible start to hopefully release some quality fish back to the local market - good food 5 times a day and 50% water changes daily. Fry with a poor start to life will never be good quality IMO, they never truly recover.
Dad in breeding dress (poor phone pic, but you get the idea)
Kim i would love to get my hands on your F1 fry but i cant justify a large cost on yellow labs because it would be hard to get the return out of such a common fish..
yes i agree that the yellow labs from the lfs and chain stores are getting worst. that is why i purchased my labs from local breeder that have excellent strain. my uncle bought some bright good looking yellow labs at a lfs a few months back. but after a month his labs got these ugly black barrings on them. and their color turn from a bright yellow into a dark dark dark yellow. kinda like a light brown. they must be hybrids.
these are my F2 LABS i wanted to share with all of you
mmmm..... in London they quality can be very good depending on the shop. I'm from the US originally and I don't think the UK has the massive chains that the us does. of course there are poor quality in terms of barring and estherae crosses but it was easy for me to find good fish without going WC fields.
I have a group of labs I got from my LFS that are not good! One actually has a blue face, who knows what it's a hybrid of...it's also VERY aggressive. I also have one that's so very dark it's almost brown. Considering I wanted to do a species tank its disappointing.
i dont really think the lfs cares if we get good labs or not. as long as people buy it and as long as they get their money, they are gonig to keep buying those low qualities labs.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could
be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Cichlid Fish Forum
A forum community dedicated to Cichlid Fish owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeding, health, behavior, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!