New trimac (Rio Naranjo)

[RampageRR]

So, inspired by DBLN8 's trimac thread, I decided to pick one up to grow out from Jeff Rapps. I bought a Rio Naranjo male, he's about 3.5 inches currently. First few days all he did was hide behind a piece of driftwood, not eating anything, but just a couple of days later he's up at the top of the water when I turn on the lights in the morning and any time I walk in the room begging for food.

So far so good, really hoping for an outgoing, interactive fish as my festae pair is beautiful but they keep to themselves for the most part.

Does anyone have any pics or info on the Rio Naranjo strain of trimacs? I know they're supposed to have a more green/dark red coloration vs the bright yellow trimacs, but that's all I've been able to gather. Hopefully someone has a pic or two of an adult male with the different coloration so I can get an idea of what to expect.

Here a few poorly shot cell phone pics for now (sorry!) - I'll get some better shots with a DSLR in a few days when I have some time. He definitely isn't bright yellow, more of a turquoise type sheen on him at the moment.

 

[RampageRR]

Oh, and here's his only tankmate, an L114 pleco. This pic was taken when he was with the festae pair. They harassed him pretty good when they had fry in the tank, so excuse the frayed tail here. It's pretty much back to normal now in his new tank.

 

[DBLN8]

How's he doing Rampage,?

 

[RampageRR]

DBLN8 he's doing very well, thanks! Growing quickly, and he's got a much more outgoing attitude than any other cichlid I've had so far. He's always out front and center, finger chases, and will actually leap out of the water to go for my fingers if I don't drop pellets in quickly enough!

My only gripe at the moment is his coloring is very dark overall - not sure whether that's a strain characteristic or if it's due to the dark sand and background in the tank. My guess is the tank setup rather than strain, since I've seen other Rio Naranjo pics and they're definitely bright colored.

My plan is to get some reptile flat plastic rocks in a light color to cover the sand and see if that changes anything. If it does, then I'll spend the money on changing out the black sand for tan.

This is what he generally looks like now, although he does look much better in person than in this picture. He has a lot of turquoise and olive sheen that doesn't show in pictures.

 

[DBLN8]

RampageRR They're a great fish to own. Mine is usually a light green to almost a yellow green at times, sometimes he gets really dark but not that often and it usually doesn't last that long. I have a black background and white pool filter sand not sure if that plays a part in his bright color.

 

[RampageRR]

RampageRR They're a great fish to own. Mine is usually a light green to almost a yellow green at times, sometimes he gets really dark but not that often and it usually doesn't last that long. I have a black background and white pool filter sand not sure if that plays a part in his bright color.

I'm fairly certain it's the tank setup that's causing his darker coloration. I had my female festae in there temporarily as a hospital tank prior to getting the trimac, and she was close to completely black. She's back in with the male and as bright as ever, so it does seem like the black sand is a very strong possibility.

I'm going to go to Lowe's today and try to find some ceramic tile in a light color to lay on top of the sand. That should be a fairly inexpensive test to see if it helps his color. I'd think there would be a visible change within a few days if it changes at all.

 

[RampageRR]

Just put in some ceramic tile from Lowe's to see if the brighter color in the tank will bring out a lighter coloration in the trimac. It seems to have helped a bit already, even with him still being stressed about me being in the tank dropping the tiles in. Tiles are temporary - if it does help his coloration, I'll be swapping out the black sand for white/tan pool filter sand.

This is about an hour after the tiles went in:

 

[DBLN8]

Looks like getting a little brighter, keep us updated

 

[CSnyder00]

Yeah. I'd switch to a white substrate. With most fish, darker colors are desireable. In your case, you want his lighter coloring, which means switching away from the black.

You could also try mixing your black with a white substrate if you want to save some $$$. I find mixing looks really nice and can help bring out colors as well.

Good luck!

(Also, I agree. Keep us posted with pictures, please!)

 

[RampageRR]

So I'm going to say the tile experiment was a success! This is just one day after putting 3 12"x12" tiles on top of the black sand (still leaving some black sand areas visible - I'd think all white sand would work even better).

Sorry for the poor photo quality - I have to stand fairly far away with a cell phone for him not to stay at the top of the tank begging for food. I'll keep you all updated with pics in a few more days to see if there are any further changes. At least you can see the cool turquoise sheen he has in some of these shots. It's actually even more prominent in person.

 

[FishEggs]

Nice.
Now try a checker board pattern and see if he gets light and dark spots in a checker board pattern. Lol

 

[CSnyder00]

Nice.
Now try a checker board pattern and see if he gets light and dark spots in a checker board pattern. Lol

Matt, I don't think that's how this works! Lol!

 

[DBLN8]

Looks much better with the lighter sand.

 

[RampageRR]

He's a little over 6" now and has really changed overall coloration. He's very interactive and out front just about all the time. I'll eventually change out the entire substrate setup for play sand, but this is how it's working for now.

Excuse the dirty tiles in these pics - I took them immediately before a tank cleaning and water change.

 

[FishEggs]

He's even showing off doing a head stand.
Really nice looking fish.

 

[Robinhud]

I agree he is very good looking fish, best of luck with him!!

 

[RampageRR]

Latest update - finally got around to swapping out the black sand for play sand. He's looking a lot better now, finally getting the yellow and pink coloration to show. I switched him over to NLS floating pellets recently, so hoping to see even more color soon.

He's right around 7.5" or so now, and is quickly catching up to my festae pair in size even though they're well over 2 and a half years old.

Make sure to change the video quality to 720/60fps:

 

[DBLN8]

He's looking much better with the lighter sand.

 

[RampageRR]

Some updated pics. He's not much longer, but he's definitely getting bigger from top to bottom.

 

[DBLN8]

looks great!