Loaches Online Forum

I have a question for owners of Panda garras.
Do you notice a variation in fin color among fish?
If so, any ideas why?
I have three, all with different level of orange/red on their fins.
About a month ago, I visited someones fish room in another city. He had about five that had much more color on their fins that even my most colorful fish. But, they had not grown as much or as large as my fish.
The fish started out looking just like mine when I got them. He has had his garras for a few months longer than mine so maybe that's at least partially it. We feed some of the same foods with mine getting a greater variety.
The color in mine has intensified, but the fins are still not as completely orange/red as the ones I saw in the fish room.
The size difference between those and mine, plus the fin color difference makes me wonder if there are differenct species or regional variations involved.
Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Up until this morning I had 4 pandas, found the biggest dead. But as for color 1 of mine has a noticeably more orange color on the body, the others are more yellow. The dead 1 was larger ~4 inches TL, the rest are ~3. The orangy 1 seems to have less tubercles on its face & the others chased it a lot at first. I thought it may be female.

The fins are similar in all coloration with slight variation as far as I can see. Some a more brick tone, others less orange more a pinkish cast.

I've only had them since July. I feed a variety of foods including pellets, color bits, veggies & frozen.

I have 2 garras in both my tanks.
(150ltr community/ 60ltr hillstream)

Both tanks have 1 bigger more colourful garra with lots of tubercles, and 1 smaller less colourful with very few tubercles.

The ones in the hillsteamtank are less coloured, but thats probably because they are very new to it (1 week) and the light has less yellow in it.

They get about the same food.
Exept the ones in the community tank get 'colour-enhancing' food with extra caroteen in it. (bit of a useless purchase).

Hope you can use the info.

I can't believe with the number of people who have these fish on this site, that I can only get two responses and no pics.
Thanks to those who responded.
Here is a pic of the most colorful of mine right after I got it.

And here he is three months later. The body color is much darker (the flash washed out some of the color) but the color of the fins has intensified only slightly. Sorry for the water spots.

Sorry Jim, I don't have a camera . Mine seem to have more brown streaking in with the red & the red is not as bright as yours. Mine have larger yellow (or orange in the 1) than yours on the body. Maybe an age thing?

Hi Jim, sorry i missed your thread, it's a wierd thing with this Garra where i live they always look dirty in the shops no vibrance to the colours, yet from the same exporter the garrra's in the southern part of the UK have very strong colours and a well defined pattern.
which leads to to a thought that water hardness and ph might have a lot to do with this fish.

mick

That's very interesting. I never thought of that.
What's the difference in the pH and hardness in those areas?
Despite living in a karst limestone region, my water is relatively soft, probably because it comes from a lake and not wells.
There are few natural buffers in the water so the pH tends to drop easily.
Most of this part of the country has very hard water.

i know that my water supply is buffered with a temporary hardness and like you the ph falls very quickly, in the south they have a high carbonate buffer that keeps the ph stable .

mick

So, you think the colors might be better in hard water?

it's possible Jim, all my tanks now have coral gravel in the filters to buffer the water up and so far the ones i bought from Emmas are holding their colour well.

mick

I hope Keith Wolcott sees this thread and responds with pics.
He bought two of his garras at the same store I did so it would be interesting to see what colors have developed.
And, unless he uses RO, his water is probably much harder than mine.

Here is my trio, the color seems quite the same on all of them. Bad pics, taken today, just for you Jim





Hoping to get more of them, but these are seasonal treats here. Probably back on the list in the spring.

Thanks! I appreciate the effort.
Yours look similar to mine in color.
The ones I saw in the fishroom were only about 2inches (5cm) long and had not grown in the months since the guy purchased them.
The body color was like yours and mine, but all the fins were as orange/red as dorsal and tail of your fish.
These two characteristics made me wonder if they were a different species or subspecies.

here's a couple of mine, one has never had much colour in it's finnage.



mick

Jim, mine look like this, please see 1st page on that link, page3 also shows some and right on top of page 4.

all 9 G.flavatra's are very similar, with occasionally temporary changes like loaches. All have very similar "tubercel" pattern, which is different to G.rufa pattern. The 6 G.rufa also have very similar "tubercel" pattern amongst them (but different than G.flavatra).

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... nuts+trash