Melanotaenia Lacustris Pic

[drobbyb]

Isn't he a beauty! I got this guy, and all in my spawning group from Tanner West.

 

[trojannemo]

he's beautiful...looks just like my guy. am i to assume you also have hard water? i've heard that these guys vary from blue to green. all of the ones i've had have always been green. varying between more colorful green and duller green, but always green. is blue only seen in soft water or am i just unlucky?

 

[drobbyb]

he's beautiful...looks just like my guy. am i to assume you also have hard water? i've heard that these guys vary from blue to green. all of the ones i've had have always been green. varying between more colorful green and duller green, but always green. is blue only seen in soft water or am i just unlucky?

I have naturally soft water. Too soft actually so I run crushed coral in my filters. GH is 10 and KH is 4.

 

[loachman]

he's beautiful...looks just like my guy. am i to assume you also have hard water? i've heard that these guys vary from blue to green. all of the ones i've had have always been green. varying between more colorful green and duller green, but always green. is blue only seen in soft water or am i just unlucky?

could be anything. they can change their color so much. Could be that they are hybrids or came from a breeder with a "green" spawning pair, your light spectrum favors green colors, the substrate color, the light intensity level, stress, diet, etc.

 

[drobbyb]

could be anything. they can change their color so much. Could be that they are hybrids or came from a breeder with a "green" spawning pair, your light spectrum favors green colors, the substrate color, the light intensity level, stress, diet, etc.

Oh no. These are not hybrids. I got them from Tanner West (very well known and respected supplier in the rainbow world.) Sub adults show this coloration before the blue. You are correct about substrate color and lighting. I have my breeding group over a tank of mixed gravel colors and in that tank they are lighter green and blue. In my main tank there are 3 including this guy. They appear muich darker in color as there is twice the light for the plants and a very dark substrate. Lacustris pretty much give you a custom look for your tank as their colors adapt to their surroundings. Also they appear much more blue in person. This was shot from a cheap Nikon Coolpix L10 camera. It isn't exactly made for shooting pictures of fish and is only 5.0 megapixels. I wish I had a DSLR with a macro lens. Then you would see their truest colors.

 

[Syphoniera]

Gorgeous fish, and also fabulous wood, rocks, set-up - are you planning on a whole-tank pic at any point, despite the camera?
I doubt I'm the only one who'd welcome the chance to have a look.

 

[drobbyb]

Gorgeous fish, and also fabulous wood, rocks, set-up - are you planning on a whole-tank pic at any point, despite the camera?
I doubt I'm the only one who'd welcome the chance to have a look.

Here's a full tank pic:

It's a 72 Bowfront planted with amazon swords and anubias. The lighting is DIY and as far as planted tanks go it's very low tech.

 

[drobbyb]

I was messing around with my camera's macro setting and managed to catch this shot: