# tropheus ilangi colors



## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

so all Ilangi's for sale claim to be the "real deal" yellow this .....yellow that. How can you tell if the Ilangi will turn out to be the yellow variety that is so desired? All dealers claim to have nice looking ilangi's? I have never seen a dealer claim to have the orange variety, yet so many people complain of their colors. especially their dark hues instead of bright yellow hues
Do the fry give you any indication of what to expect?
I have Ilangi , that are 1-1.5 inches, their colors are constantly changing, based on their mood (my assumption)
sometimes they look pale, other times no bars, other times striking in their striped colors. the larger ones are showing hues of yellow on the body when aggressive, although their overall body color is dark when that happens.

is it just a waiting game, to see if I got some nice Ilangis? mine are not that colorful, and quite brown in their overall coloration.......... how long before I know if I got nice looking ilangis? I have F1


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

I guess they (F1s if ment by that, first generation from wild caught) should grow up to show similar colour to the WC. Some are bright yellow some are not.










Sadly not my WC but "Tom's" group in the UK. :wink:

Maybe you want to see the WC group before splashing out on such an expensive and variable variant?

Interestingly enough they may be so variable because they originaly came from two separate collection sites.

One site now has none.

The other site is rummered to be so highly fished that duller fish are moving in.

Another explanation is Ilangi are not a pure moorii nore sp."Red" but a natural mix of the two.

Though most of this is conjecture (unreliable) :wink:

All the best James


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

Along the lines of what 24 is saying, true Ilangi are becoming scarce. At a recent club event, a sponsor who actually goes to, dives, and has imported WC Ilangi from Tanganyika asked that members stop buying WCs. He stated that the population has been thinned significantly, and thus some importers were being less than honest about some WCs being true Ilangi and flooding the market with offspring of the same. These are just things I've heard, not speaking from personal experience.


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## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

thank you for the replies, this discussion has existed for quite some time about the ilangi colors.
however my question wasn't answered.
do I have to wait until my ilangi are older until I can see what their coloration is? do the fry give off any traits of a yellow/orange/or dark variety?
how soon will I know if I have to wait? 6 months?


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

You will have to wait closer to a year before you start seeing their true colours, there is no way of knowing how they will turn out other than by looking at their parents. I grew out 40 something Ilangis before I sold them on. There were two true yellow ones. Unless you hand picked these fish personally from hundreds of Ilangi, I'm afraid you are likely to be dissapointed.


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## marius432 (Aug 13, 2012)

noddy said:


> You will have to wait closer to a year before you start seeing their true colours, there is no way of knowing how they will turn out other than by looking at their parents. I grew out 40 something Ilangis before I sold them on. There were two true yellow ones. Unless you hand picked these fish personally from hundreds of Ilangi, I'm afraid you are likely to be dissapointed.


thanks that the response i was looking for


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Old topic but new stuff from Ad Konings in his talk to us at the EACG.

Rather interestingly Ad Konings confirmed his belief is like mine. Ilangi Tropheus were a natural hybrid between a species "Red" (Tropheus moorii/sp."Red" (Nkamba Bay)) and another rather dull Tropheus. Thats the reason they seemed to go extinct due to over fising for the hobby but then started to turn up again and why the beautiful colours of WC Ilangi are imposible to replicate well large scale by breeding them in captivity, without generations of selection.

All the best James


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

So if you want the look of WC Ilangi get some WC Tropheus moorii/sp."Red" (Nkamba Bay) and the rather dull WC rainbow/moorii and cross them.

Anyone breeding the F1 will not get em as good!

That way we can leave the wild Ilangi alone!

All the best James


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Trust my luck to post important info just as some idiot hacks in with loads of rubbish adverts.


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

24Tropheus said:


> Trust my luck to post important info just as some idiot hacks in with loads of rubbish adverts.


+1


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

Interesting stuff James. what was the dull rainbow? Chaitika maybe?


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Sorry I can not remember. Best ask Ad. It was a variant I had not heard of before or ever heard of being exported. (Not that that meens much). It was not a typical well coloured rainbow variant (very dull cream colour with a couple of other markings from the photo) but then thats the only other Tropheus species near there other than sp. "Red" yes?
For sure not as good looking as Chaitika.

All the best James


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Me I am for sure looking forward to Ads new book on Tropheus. Already written and ready to go out. Just I can not get an early peak. Not that Ad is always right but at least he follows up on lake/importers reports and checks em out personaly.

He says quite a lot of imports are from a legal place to colect near to the reported colection site as the real place of colection is illegal and "protected". Plus colecters lieing to keep their sources secret or unfishable by others. Tend to believe the long term guys but then they have a few skeletons in the closet too if you dig or look back long enough.

Kind of hope it will blow my mind as I kind of followed Peter Schupke version before.
Sadly he went by importers and reports (2000) and hope now we may get a better or different view.

All the best James


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## noddy (Nov 20, 2006)

Interesting stuff James. I didn't know Ad was putting out a book. I'll keep my eye open.


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Yep not long now. Erm interestingly I was talking to an importer at the BCA do. He was saying the WC Ilangi recently (well in the last two years) imported to the UK are throwing out all yellow young despite being not all being all yellow themselves (just the ones in the photos :wink: ).
Still at £12.50 a shot vs about £5-10 a shot for other young Tropheus here its kind of a hard decission weather to go for some or not.

Kind of hoping the price will come down or can get more info before risking it.

All the best James


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