royal blue male

[Afrikan]

The supposed royal blues that have come in on the wholesalers lists from time to time have not come in with a scientific name neither a variant... just straight common name "royal blue"... The ones we had from imported look exactly like living arts... apparently stuartgranti family...

Short of a fish coming in with a definate species identification (variant type), I then cannot see how people can go labelling definate variant type. JMO

The trouble is, some importers will take a bundle of fish from NZ breeders if they do have enough of them... Hubby has at times rung the main african fish importer at times with certain species to ask if they are infact imported or have been bred locally ie in NZ. As you never know with many aulonocara what to trust and what not to trust when people are breeding them in mixed tanks But then we are also relying on honesty of the exporters overseas...

[livingart]

as you can see in the photo this royal blue has no red in fins

the one in link is described as red vented royal blue

as said we can only rely on the honesty of who we get the fish off, and they are probably relying on what they are told, and so on etc

short of going to the lake and catching your own fish we have to go by doing research and using fish that match the description for the species or variant

i read an article on the net recently that recounted a story that in the 70's some local exporters at lake malawi, established colonies of some of the more sought after peacock species closer to their base to make it easier to find and catch them for export

has this led to some further mixing of genes

[firenzenz]

So right Livingart.

In fact the fish in the link I posted comes from Mozambique and was translocated to Malawi in the period you mention.

The questions I posted are, in the most part rhetorical, and it seems that has been picked up.

Analogy- My cousin Bob lives in L.A. He is 35, lives in Venice Beach, drive a toyota SUV and have short brown hair with a bit of salt&pepper in it. So the first Bob I meet in L.A who fits that criteria must be my cousin?

At least with the knowlege of his surname I can be more likely to find the right BOB- if you get my drift.

[livingart]

i think i know the BOB you are talking about 8)

if it looks like it, acts like it and breeds true to type then it must be it

[firenzenz]

Lucky BOB! :lol:

[livingart]

fish we have most fits this photo

Aulonocara stuartgranti (Chirwa Is.)

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/s ... hp?id=1392

there is another photo on there described as royal blue that looks similar to your fish foxglove

sorry forgot to say the mix of fish look good in the tank

[Tropheus]

It doesnt matter if it fits the discription of a peacock on a certain website. If it came thru the importers as Aul.Royal blue (as they do 99.9% of the time) it can only be called a royal blue.

Ive had my strain for 10 odd years now and always breed true. I feed my blues a certain food but have given a mate of mine a batch of fry and 9months down the road i pop over to have a look at them and i get blown away. The blues i gave him are hugh and different colour then mine. Way i ask? because he feeds them nothing but trout pellets.

Best to call the Aul.Stuartgranti, Royal Blues, Red Shoulder or Hans.B

[Afrikan]

I agree Tropheus, we can only stick to the names that they are imported as.. there has been too many cases of people getting fish and then seeing a pic that may resemble a peacock and then suddenly it gets named that particular variant because it looks like that fish that they just spotted on joe bloggs website... we all know how peacocks are so hard to ID via photos, they can look something totally different in the flesh compared to what the same species may look like in a photo.

[firenzenz]

It doesnt matter if it fits the discription of a peacock on a certain website. If it came thru the importers as Aul.Royal blue (as they do 99.9% of the time) it can only be called a royal blue.

Ive had my strain for 10 odd years now and always breed true. I feed my blues a certain food but have given a mate of mine a batch of fry and 9months down the road i pop over to have a look at them and i get blown away. The blues i gave him are hugh and different colour then mine. Way i ask? because he feeds them nothing but trout pellets.

Best to call the Aul.Stuartgranti, Royal Blues, Red Shoulder or Hans.B

Then the question is Mike- would you be happy to breed your Royal blues in with the Royal blues of Foxgloves?

As Afrikan has intimated- a fish on a stock list might be from anywhere.

When an importer or shop decides to sell a peacock as a 'firebird" , and then in small letters it's species designation, I think they are in fact covering their backs-better to give new or broad term to a fish rather than getting caught ou down the line as supplying hybrids.

How cool it would have been if the fish you got 10 years ago came in with a scientific name, something to work with and then breeders could pool resources in confidence. Still not foolproof but better than it is now.

[Tropheus]

No-Foxgloves looks really nice but no would never cross. Same as my Fryeri. Have my original lot my OOA which hes had for donkey years and got some of BOB THE BUILDER (think thats him). Both Fryeri but diff in colour.

Look what happen with the last lot of Royal Blues that are kicking out 30%or so of so called albino's (with black eyes). To me thats stock I wouldnt touch.

Just my thoughts.