Opal vs Blue vs Yellow a. Borellii

Which do you think is a more attractive variant of Apistogramma borellii: blue, opal or yellow?

Mine were sold as "opal" but whether they are or not, I am not actually sure. But I like whichever they are haha


But I do notice online images are all over the place with variation among them. The next photos are from Google.

Have you seen glaser's opals?? They're stunning white


And the wild


Glaser doesn't have yellow, but here's an example...
Lacks the red in the face


There's some uncertainty though if opal is a locality thing or a whole different species altogether, as far as I am aware.

I saw the early opals (1990s), then presented as a linebred sport. They've been developed further, but I think they're a "fancy" borellii.

I'm the wild type purist, with a love of the blue bodied, yellow faced ones.

opal refers to the face not the body colouring. This is the opal i have:


My understanding is both opal and non opal do occur in the wild though the opal are not very common. Sadly you can't buy wc borelli these days (brazill won't export them and while they occur in other regions outside brazil for some reason they are not exported).

In my opinion all domestic Borelli are 'equal' and it is a matter of personal taste. However if wc borelli become availalbe in the future that will be the one i will acquire regardless of colour form.
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Yea I'm 99% sure opal do occur in the wild; anyway wish someone would export wc borelli.

anewbie said:

opal refers to the face not the body colouring. This is the opal i have:
View attachment 349054

My understanding is both opal and non opal do occur in the wild though the opal are not very common. Sadly you can't buy wc borelli these days (brazill won't export them and while they occur in other regions outside brazil for some reason they are not exported).

In my opinion all domestic Borelli are 'equal' and it is a matter of personal taste. However if wc borelli become availalbe in the future that will be the one i will acquire regardless of colour form.
--
Yea I'm 99% sure opal do occur in the wild; anyway wish someone would export wc borelli.

Click to expand...

Hey that handsome photo looks familiar

(It's noodlecats btw)

Opal may refer to the face. It seems sensible. But as far as the trade goes, it rapidly came to refer to the face and an extended dorsal fin. In the 90s, when they were a new thing, it was the dorsal that was sold as opal, and the face pattern was more or less the same for both. There were no yellows.

I unpacked at least six shipments of Brazilian borellii and trifasciata back then, when it was still legal. All of the shipments of opal borellii came from the Czech Republic.

GaryE said:

Opal may refer to the face. It seems sensible. But as far as the trade goes, it rapidly came to refer to the face and an extended dorsal fin. In the 90s, when they were a new thing, it was the dorsal that was sold as opal, and the face pattern was more or less the same for both. There were no yellows.

I unpacked at least six shipments of Brazilian borellii and trifasciata back then, when it was still legal. All of the shipments of opal borellii came from the Czech Republic.

Click to expand...

Wish you could import borelli these days; they do range into columbia and other areas - as they are one of the more adaptable species in the wild.

My importing friend used to have a different Apisto or three in almost every Colombian, Peruvian or Brazilian shipment, but if he brings them in now, they are clutter in tanks he could be selling fish from. Absolutely no one will buy them anymore. Those of us into dwarf Cichlids lose out on the almost total loss of curiosity in our current hobby.

GaryE said:

My importing friend used to have a different Apisto or three in almost every Colombian, Peruvian or Brazilian shipment, but if he brings them in now, they are clutter in tanks he could be selling fish from. Absolutely no one will buy them anymore. Those of us into dwarf Cichlids lose out on the almost total loss of curiosity in our current hobby.

Click to expand...

I think the curiosity level has remained the same what has changed is the number of non-curious people entering the market so the 'relative' market (or % of people who are curious) has changed.

The market has shrunk crazily, and rare fish sales have fallen. Now, the market is for large predatory fish, and it seems we're down to very few outlets for "oddballs" like dwarf Cichlids. I was hanging around with wholesalers, who didn't sell small orders to buyers without business numbers (unless they worked with the imports, which I did). If three boxes of unknown Apistos came in, they would be gone to stores in a week. You had to move fast if you wanted those fish, and they were profitable enough that they featured highly in every import. The number of still undescribed species, or unclassified local morphs we saw was very intriguing.

Now, the very best stores will order the basic Apistos, most of which are linebred away from their natural forms. My favourite store had some locally bred 'super red' veijita the last time I was there, and told me they had never bought wild Apistos, because... they couldn't sell them. They'd only buy from 2 or 3 local breeders, who bought Czech fish. The new line is "if people don't recognize the name of the fish, they won't buy it, and what they recognize is what the box stores carry".

The internet has made it harder to be successfully curious, in a backhanded way. It shouldn't have, but the algorithms with obscure subjects like fish mean we have to know a name and search for it. We can't open a book to pages 457 to 500 as see a family of fishes that catch our eye, and then research. Nothing functions as a catalogue now, and I've seen a lot of attempts fall away because it costs to maintain a site. It's a Catch 22 situation. The next few years should be interesting.

Well if he can bring in wc borelli