Ugly texas

[PooCooper]

Do texas cichlids get any better looking when they get older? The one I have is about 3 inches and is positively ugly. It is this dingy grey color and has hardly any color on its reflective spots. Every other ciclhid in the tank is extremely colorful. I have a 125, perfect water parameters, 76 degrees. I feed them hikari gold, shrimp,and meal worms. I am thinking about turning him or her in because it is so ugly. I would post a picture but I am too ignorant to get it to work. I have had this fish for about a month and a half. Thanks

[PooCooper]

The picture doesn't do it justice. The flash must have made the shiny spots more prominent. In the tank they are almost non-existent.

[peifc]

Texas cichlid will be beautiful when fully grown.

[ScottoMacD]

One thing I can say is be patient.

Almost all new worlds are bland and boring when young. Yours at 3 inches is still very young. Give it time. Once it grows a little and starts exert it's dominance it will color up nicely.

Are you sure it is a Herichthys cyanoguttatus that you have?
http://aquavisie.retry.org/Database/Vissen/Herichthys_cyanoguttatus.jpg


It looks like it has a greenish tinge like the Herichthys Carpinte. The green texas that really isn't from texas at all.
http://www.cichlidscene.com/img/gcar/lg/20030104gcar1.jpg

Or is the coloring just from the flash in your picture?

The way to tell is that the Herichthys Carpinte has fewer larger spots.

Note: Full credits to the photographers for their excellent pictures.

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

mines abit smaller but he has quiet nice colour but they are a very hard fish to get nice pics of

i had an adult texas a few years back with the move beautyful colour iver seen but he fell victom to a falty heater:mad:

http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL146/1914791/3727427/45810108.jpg

http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL146/1914791/3727427/45810115.jpg

http://pic6.picturetrail.com/VOL146/1914791/3727427/45810103.jpg

they are the best i could get and IMO they are hopless cant wait till he gets bigger

[DarthV]

Looks like you have a small H. carpintis (green texas) and not a true Texas. They really start to shine once they hit the 3-4" mark... here's some recent pics of my small breeding pair :

Female:
http://executor.hil.unb.ca/craig/images/fish/carpinte/carpinte016.jpg

Male:
http://executor.hil.unb.ca/craig/images/fish/carpinte/carpinte017.jpg

The colors are a little strong and the female is going into breeding dress in the pic, so she's a little darker than normal...

[PooCooper]

Mine must be a green texas because its spots are tiny. I about fell over when I seen the pictures you guys posted. Its just hard to see the end result when your fish looks like some sort of just a dirty grey bland fish. Keep the pictures coming if anyone has anymore, you got me kinda psyched on keeping her/him.

[DarthV]

The spots might be tiny compared to an adult's...but a regular texas would have many more of the tiny spots :)

Here's a couple of my carpinte when they were smaller:

http://executor.hil.unb.ca/craig/images/fish/carpinte/carpinte009.jpg

[kevinfishboy]

Hey I like your texas pics and your texas is not ugly they are very pretty