Yellow Lab coloration

[PaulineMi]

Yellow labs will get "bearding" sometimes with age but sometimes as youngsters.... what I considered a fault.  A high quality lab should be a clear yellow bodied fish with black fins.

[GrizzlysDad]

FWIW, I don't think that it's necessarily a cross and believe it could just a complete lack of breeding standards. The average person with a fish tank wouldn't care about the quality of the fish. 

Ron & Josh, isn't there some other mbuna with it's body half colored like that? I swear I've seen something similar before...

Yes there are. I can't think of any with yellow/white off hand though. One example would be G. moorii. Another would be the guy top center in this photo (having a brain fart right now and can't recall what the scientific name is ...):

Ron, is the fish in that photo the "Flame Back Zebra" that was swimming around several years ago?  I brought in wild stock several years ago and they were distributed in our area. It is currently called Metriaclima glaucos "Flame back" from Kanjindo Rocks.
As for most of the yellow/white patterned Labidochromis at LFS are most likely just poor bred stock.
There are several variants of the Labidochromis caeruleus "White" that come from different collection points.
Some are all white; some have a pale yellow above the white; some are a blue tinted white; and there is the Labidochromis pallidus which is white with just a small yellow cap on the head.
The majority of white/yellow labs in LFS are not these wild type variants though...just bad breeding stock as I already mentioned.

[Ron]

Ron, is the fish in that photo the "Flame Back Zebra" that was swimming around several years ago?  I brought in wild stock several years ago and they were distributed in our area. It is currently called Metriaclima glaucos "Flame back" from Kanjindo Rocks.

Thanks Tony! That is the correct ID. I'd originally gotten it at a MCA auction by mistake after only hearing "flameback" and presuming it was the victorian species. I lost all but one of the 3-4 fry, but lucked out with that beauty of a male. That picture is from ~2005 IIRC. I've got better pictures somewhere and had him for 4-5 years before I had to move between locations. I'll have to keep an eye out for it now that I know the proper name - I've looked locally in the past, but haven't found anyone with them.

[four_by_ken]

Great picture up there.

Good looking fish and tank.

[Ron]

Great picture up there.

Good looking fish and tank.

Thanks. It was one of the neatest tanks I've ever had. 6' 100 gallon with about 70 mbuna, around 10 different species. The living situation was that I had to move in a year, so the high stocking rate wasn't going to be a long term issue as the fish got bigger. It simply had tons of action and color.

[four_by_ken]

Great picture up there.

Good looking fish and tank.

Thanks. It was one of the neatest tanks I've ever had. 6' 100 gallon with about 70 mbuna, around 10 different species. The living situation was that I had to move in a year, so the high stocking rate wasn't going to be a long term issue as the fish got bigger. It simply had tons of action and color.

Any more pictures of it?  That sounds great!

[Ron]

Any more pictures of it?  That sounds great!

I do somewhere. When I find them I'll make a new thread in one of the picture sections of the forum.

[GrizzlysDad]

Ron, is the fish in that photo the "Flame Back Zebra" that was swimming around several years ago?  I brought in wild stock several years ago and they were distributed in our area. It is currently called Metriaclima glaucos "Flame back" from Kanjindo Rocks.

I'll have to keep an eye out for it now that I know the proper name - I've looked locally in the past, but haven't found anyone with them.

FWIW, Dave Schumaker had them recently...I believe during the group order.

[Regalblue]

Ron, is the fish in that photo the "Flame Back Zebra" that was swimming around several years ago?  I brought in wild stock several years ago and they were distributed in our area. It is currently called Metriaclima glaucos "Flame back" from Kanjindo Rocks.

I'll have to keep an eye out for it now that I know the proper name - I've looked locally in the past, but haven't found anyone with them.

FWIW, Dave Schumaker had them recently...I believe during the group order.

Yes & Bob Stevens had a pair for sale not too long ago.

[djlamonica]

My dominate male while breeding often looks like the black on his fins is almost continuing down on to his face.  I defiantly would not consider my yellow labs low quality.  In fact most of them came from the auctions where I specifically bid on them because of the people that were selling them because they were known for high quality. 

[mightieskeeper]

Djlamonica, I don't think that labs with beards are from poor quality breeding stock.  Labs have been bred so much by fish keepers it is a bad trait that shines through.  I have see it on different breeders labs.  I have some F1 labs that have light barring on them.  I'm growing mine out to see if it goes away as it becomes an adult.  Bad traits come from high quality fish.   I believe breeders don't cull enough fry to remove these traits.