changing a fishs color

[Fuzzy]

now mind u im not talking about dying a fish. this question is about evlolution o fish in a way. now SW fish r so colorful cause they have to blend in the the enviroment. now most(not all) of FW fish a darker colors like brown, grey, ect. cuz they live in a river eniviroment were there is mud, stick, logs, rotting leave and dark colored rocks. what if a certain FW fish were to be breed in a enviroment full of fake but very colorful corals, all shaped extemely differently from it natural habitat. will its colors eventualy change to fit the enviroment? can its body also change shape to fit the enviroment?

thnx for any answeres im really curious to no

 

[Nina7777]

Perhaps.......over an extended period of time.....we're talking extremely long time. and if it feels comfortable enough in the tank.....and if the tank is huge.


But IMO i don't think anyone would ever have the time or energy nor money to simulate evolution.

 

[endparenthesis]

About a thousand years of selective breeding would do it.

 

[Pleco-Heaven]

About a thousand years of selective breeding would do it.

As well as having predators in the tank, theres no point in evolving and adapting if there is nothing to hide from. E.G A deer is brown to blend into a woodland habitat, so it can hide from predators such as wolves, if there were no predators about the deer would be more intensly coloured.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

hmmm. An interesting topic. Im sure its possible but it would no doubt take several generations. Maybe if you started breeding them, by the time your great grandchildren are old enough to carry the torch, you would start to see the evolution taking place. Pleco heaven had a good point there about predators too.

 

[endparenthesis]

Selective breeding. You decide what breeds. No predators required.

 

[guppymonkey]

It doesn't really take that long for color morphs to evolve. I was reading one of my books about livebearers and came across some interesting environmental influences on color. They released guppies into streams, some streams had lots of small dark pebbles on the river bottom and other streams didn't have many pebbles. After a short period of time the guppies that lived in the streams with lots of small pebbles were found to have tails that had lots of black spots on their tails. They guppies in the streams with less pebbles had less spots on their tails.

Its basically evolution sped up. The guppies that were genetically inclined to have the coloration that most closely matched the environment were more likely to live to adulthood and be able to breed and pass on those traits.

As to adding fish to an environment with bright colors.... That would take a huge amount of time. Some fish don't have the genes for bright colors.