Electric yellow linebreeding

[sandy001]

Hi all

I am currently sourcing some yellows for a breeding colony & wanted to hear everyones opinion on what makes a good quality electric yellow.

I know there are articles on this but I wanted to get some personal opinions.

From what I have learnt it is important to get an all over bright yellow particularly on the belly. A wide black band on the dorsal fin & black caudal & anal fins is also prefered.

Dave

[GTR73]

You may have a read this excellent article by Andrea Watts (aka Merjo), on Electric Yellows:

Click me

What I'm doing personally, I have recently purchased some "quality" E. yellows out of Sydney and from that I'll pare it down to the best quality "classic" E. yellow I can, ie fish with most overall yellow and most black dorsal. In the meantime I'll keep on the hunt for reasonable E. yellows to add to the colony.

I might also select well coloured offspring and add them to the colony as time goes by.

Easier said than done I know, and I realise this won't necessarily guarantee A1 quality, but it'll hopefully produce reasonable quality E. yellows to what's readily available up here.

[saudukar]

I always found the discussion of "line breeding" in EYs a very subjective topic.

Not much is known of the naturally occuring EY in and around lions cove. As has been said the true Lab. caeruleus is blue and the yellow is a morph. A very successful aquaruim hobby sold morph.

It is classic human behaviour to want to improve on something but how do you define "improve" in EYs? Of course in my definition would be to have F0-1 specimens and keep records of breeding but "improve" in most peoples terminology would be to a) Make them more yellow. b) Make the black markings more prominant c) Remove faint black barring and the black facial mask.

From what little photos wild specimens (suspected wild specimens) I have seen (Ad Konings cichlids of Malawi CD 3rd release and a few other online articles and magazine journals.) the wild specimens arent as "vibrant" as line breeders would have you beleive. They have many of the flaws aquarium specimens have.

I must admit myself to "culling" my breeding stock to takeout faded or blackend EYs but that in itself is just to increase the ability that people will inturn buy my bred stock.

I think that everything is subjective to experience. Line breeding is just selective breeding. Current available stock will dictate quality.

I think with this sort of thing the physical condition of the fish is more important then the appearance. As if colour is all you want, many types of higher quality food will rectify colouring problems.

If you want good quality fish I recommend finding good quality hobbiest/breeders first and have a look at thier parent stock. Just having a look at the end result babies wont tell you much.