When (And How) Do Mbuna Cichlids Get Their Adult Color?

[Lisa67]

I have a group of mbuna that I bought that already had their adult color (yellow labs, orange zebras, parallelus, acei) and then I later bought some small Red Top Ndumbi and Afra Cobu from a mail order company. The mail order fish are now getting pretty big and sometimes I can see some of their color and sometimes it fades. Just wondering when they will be fully colored and how it happens. Are there any changes to their skin that I will see as the colors come in?

Also,I happened to be at a pet store this morning and just took a look in some of the tanks. There were some very tiny mbuna varieties (less than an inch) that were fully colored. My redtop ndumbi are nearly 2" and still brown.

Any comments? Thanks!

 

[rifty]

afra will colour up and down at the 2 inch mark my main male holds most his colour at around 2.5 inches my ndumbi coloured at around an inch very pale blue with the males the orange tops at around the 3 inch mark my females are brown tho so you may find you have all girls

dont worry if you see smaller fish in lfs fully coloured the whole tank was probably in full colour right the boys AND girls!!! they are normally eastern european or far east hormone fed crap

 

[Lisa67]

By "coloring up and down" do you mean that they get their color and then it fades? I guess my fish are still a bit smaller than the size at which they start to change. I've noticed that one or two of each variety is much larger than the others. They all started out at about the same size so I'm hoping that means something. And about the LFS... yes, every fish was fully colored no matter how tiny.

 

[rifty]

yes partcularlymt afra types colourup and down in various mood related activities
larger fish from the same brood are normally males so fingers crossed
lfs malawis = hormone fed rubbish 99% of the time