# Yellow Lab Barring, sign of hybrid?



## Alistriwen (Jan 5, 2008)

Question for the yellow lab experts out there:

I have 10 yellow labs all about 2 inches or so that I purchased as 2 groups of 5 from seperate breeders. The intention is to breed them but as they've acclimated to the tank and re-coloured *** noticed some of them have barring on their sides. It a yellow/yellow barring but there are definetely bars. The first breeder I got from told me barring was a sign of something being crossed in there and since only some of the fish have it Im not sure whether he's right or not. My camera is broken or I'd post some pictures.


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## Joea (May 25, 2004)

Barring in _L. caeruleus_ is normal. It's often quite faint, but depending on their mood can intensify. Very young juveniles and fry can often show noticeable barring. I've even seen WC _L. caeruleus_ with faint barring.

It's certainly not a indication of hybridization.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Joea said:


> It's certainly not a indication of hybridization.


But it is usually considered undesireable. Personally I have spent a couple of years breeding the barring out of my labs. Its a major pain, but with it being so hard (at least in my area) to get really clean labs, it was my only recourse to get the look i wanted.

There is nothing wrong with your labs, but just know it _may_ be harder for you to sell any of the future fry.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

And, they may "outgrow" the barring and be perfect looking adults!

Kim


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## Joea (May 25, 2004)

Intense barring is undesirable, I'm not sure how possible it is to eliminate barring through careful, selected breeding; these are still mbuna after all.

Here's one of my F1 _L. caeruleus_. You can clearly see the faint barring this specimen has.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

If that is considered faint barring (I had to squint) then I would be happy with it. In comparrison, the only ones I could find in my area had quite heavy barring that never faded.

Here is a pic of one of the first ones I got.









and where I'm at now









Next I am going to work on thickening the black in the dorsal fin.


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## Joea (May 25, 2004)

Yikes... that first one is scary.... I see a lot of those around.

Your second fella looks like my big fat pig of a male. He likes to get a jump on the food before anyone else.

Yeah, I was using that picture of an example of the faintest barring possible and the fact that it's an F1. I don't think you could breed that out.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

The first pic looks like some lab juvies I have :?


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Joea said:


> Your second fella looks like my big fat pig of a male. He likes to get a jump on the food before anyone else.


Yeah he is currenty the dominant male, and he has (on more than one occassion) actually come flying out of the tank when I opend the top to feed. Sometimes I think he has suffered some brain damage from hitting the floor a couple of times. He is one of the labs that stares up at the lights for 15 minutes when they first go on.



Cook.MN said:


> The first pic looks like some lab juvies I have :?


Since the barring on the juvies does often go away as they hit adulthood, I wouldn't count them out right away. In my personal project I culled (not killed, just didn't let breed) any fry that showed any amount of barring. If I had the space to let them grow up, I likely would have waited to decide on them until later.


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## Alistriwen (Jan 5, 2008)

Thanks for all the replies! Very helpful!

*** got only 2 or 3 with bars that are noticeable the rest are pretty clean. The ones with bars are also the ones with some white on their undersides so chances are they will be sold and the other 7 will become the breeding group but we'll see how it goes. After seeing the pic Malawi lover posted though I can see that it could be much much worse lol. My barred ones are still that nice yellow colour. If I can find someone who has some nice ones after my move to Toronto I might add 3 or four more to the group for additional genetic diversity.


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## Alistriwen (Jan 5, 2008)

Actually, Joea, you're close by, if you sell fry I may be interested in some down the road if they all look like the one in the picture.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I have one with a little gray in the pectorals and a streak of gray at top and bottom of tail. I would have expected those fins to be completely yellow. Did someone get a little carried away trying to breed selectively for black in the dorsal?


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