Chocolate Marble youngsters

I had these turn up 6 in all, in a spawn from a couple of smokey blue marbles & wasnt going to keep them but now thay have grown on me & i think are going to be promising when mature.There are M/M - Sm/Sm - pb/pb & i love the dorsals when they display them as they are quite wide & seem to be much wider than any that the same parents have produced before.

Hi Paul,
A couple of interesting points follow from your post...

1.

i love the dorsals when they display them as they are quite wide & seem to be much wider than any that the same parents have produced before.

This would be a strong indication that environmental factors play an important role in wifi development

2. From the photos I wouldn't have guessed they were smokey, let alone chocolate. I've noticed that the M/g combination masks smokey expression, I had a hunch that the M/M combination would too.

Some cracking fish you have there!

Thanks for the comments rob regards these as I wasn't sure 100% about them at first but they are very chocolate in colour in the flesh but the pics seem to show them more as a black. They look just like there blue smokey siblings apart from there colour & most importantly the dorsal fins.What made you have a hunch about M/M masking the smokey patern as that is something I was wondering about.
They are out of the same pair that have just given me a spawn in hard water so im hopeing for more & if poss in blue.
I'm over the moon with these as they were unexpected. If I can now find some others elsewhere that have wide dorsals for crossing with them I will be a happy man.

The fact that you have said they are cracking fish means a lot rob as I know that you for one know your angel from your elbow.

.What made you have a hunch about M/M masking the smokey patern

I've noticed that the M/g combination masks smokey expression

g/g does, but M/+ & +/g don't so if M/g does then it would appear that both M & g are doing the masking, and by extension, it seemed likely that M/M might too.

Thanks for that rob as it is now something else I have learnt regards the different genes & what they do in regards to each other.

The other thing I meant to ask was what makes you think there is a strong indication that environmental factors play an important role in wifi development.

what makes you think there is a strong indication that environmental factors play an important role in wifi development.

they are quite wide & seem to be much wider than any that the same parents have produced before.

Whilst you might expect an odd, exceptional individual in any given batch. When you see a marked difference in the appearance of a significant proportion of a batch, compared to previous batches from the same parents, that strongly suggests an environmental influence.

Ok thanks for explaining that rob i can see where you are coming from now & it makes a lot of sense.

After seeing the fins on these i have noticed in one of there blue siblings a very nice dorsal also but it does appear to be the only one.
I have spoken to all that bought youngsters off of me from this spawn & only one has said that he has noticed a nice wide poss wifi in one that he bought.

Here is a pic of the blue out of the same spawn