Marble Cons

[straitjacket]

I had to drastically downsize earlier this year however I wasn't about to let these guys go.

BamBam's getting bigger.

SMASH is not but he's still sexy.

and these two little ladies will grow on to continue their marbalicious line.
First once plays second fiddle. She's reserved and shy so pictures of this one are lacking.

This one's the more bullish outgoing one. She's making me really happy with the way she looks.

I'm really happy with the amount of marbling on these guys considering the most I see on a marble I happen to find at random shops is hardly any.

 

[jessey]

they are so cool. ive never seen them before!

 

[brian1973]

very nice looking cons.

 

[straitjacket]

Thanks guys!

I would have totally missed my first ever pair of "Marbled" cons. They were pinks with just one tiny black spot here or there but when paired they would throw increasingly marbled babies.

 

[SdJaCK&SaLLy]

Very nice cichlids!

 

[wrestlingfreak7]

very nice. I really like the coloration on the females

 

[mistercoffee]

Wow those are awesome!

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Very nice fish. Love the colors. You don't see marbles to much. Whats the % of fry you get (color wise) from 2 marbles? I assume they throw regulars and pinks too?

 

[straitjacket]

Thanks everyone! The ladies are defiitely firing up really nice.

Matt, from the pair I was spawning which was :
SMASH

and this female

I would get 100% marbles.
Both parents came from batches of pinks.
I actually am surprised that they don't throw any pinks at least but I'm not disappointed. The better the marbling on the parents the better the marbling on the offspring is what I'm noticing. Since I lost my original female I plan on using the young offspring female to keep in a line breeding project. Hubby wants to spawn BamBam to a wild female that we have to see what turns up. We both think the F1 cross will be barred but we'll have new blood in the line and that's good enough.

 

[Chris_A]

Could you post a pic of the wild con? Ever since I saw a pic of a Costa Rican in one of the AquaLogs I've been looking for some .

Thanks
Chris

 

[straitjacket]

Could you post a pic of the wild con? Ever since I saw a pic of a Costa Rican in one of the AquaLogs I've been looking for some .

Thanks
Chris

I don't have any shots of the exact female I plan on using but I do have pics of another pair from the same location. I only have 3 total (1M & 2F). I originally had 20.
6" male

4" female

in breeding colors

 

[Chris_A]

Thanks! THOSE are some good looking con's, but I'm always a bigger fan of wild caught/wild type anything .

LOVE the yellow type... for the life of me though I can't remember where they are from. The irridecence (sp?) is amazing too.

Want to ship some babies up to Canada?
Chris

 

[straitjacket]

Thanks! THOSE are some good looking con's, but I'm always a bigger fan of wild caught/wild type anything .

LOVE the yellow type... for the life of me though I can't remember where they are from. The irridecence (sp?) is amazing too.

Want to ship some babies up to Canada?
Chris

This particular strain is from Rio Cabuyo in Costa Rica. If you follow the recent con revision that would make them Amatitlania siquia.
All the cons I got from this location and several other local aquarists that got their hands on these beauties all note the same amber base color with many specimens showing nice orange to yellow coloration. The offspring of this pair all have a beautiful bronze base color with lighter amber, orange and yellow tones and blue/green coloration around the gills/throat. Very young females show some orange spangling on the belly but the spangling usually fades. None of the older 2.5" + females would show any spangling. Despite the lack of characteristic female con coloration the sexes were not hard to tell apart as males are much larger than the females. The smallest male in our original group of 20 was about 5.5". Most averaged 6".
One of the best looking males of the group IMO (I loved his shape)

The largest was 7" tip to tip.

I also notice that the F1 fry grow much MUCH faster than any other cons I've had before. Pretty cool. If I knew how to ship I'd have saturated the entire west coast with these already. I'd be more than happy to post some up north when I figure out how!

 

[Chris_A]

I've been so far out of the nomenclature revisions it's just scary . Wouldn't happen to have any links that would be good for brushing up would you? I think the last big one I followed was Kullander in the 90's if I remember correctly.

So far as shipping goes, I'm more joking than anything else. Probably wouldn't be worthwhile to Canada. I'm pretty sure you need a CITIES permit and I know Canadian Customs is... (What’s the diplomatic term...) "picky" about paper work.

So far as breeding the wilds to the Aquarium population... 'bout time someone did ! I've been saying that for YEARS about most of the easily bred fish and Cichlids especially. With all the line breeding and total lack of culling in some cases, it's inevitable the genetics will weaken. As an example, I'm sure you'll see similar growth with the WC/AP off spring as you do with the F1's.

Chris