"dark phase" yellow labs?

[jennisof]

My year-old yellow labs've grown up nice and big. Some are typical yellow lab brilliant yellow, but a couple are "grayish." They're attractive in their own way, but I am curious if these guys are a mutation with peacocks or just a natural dark morph. Anybody?

[Brentpitt]

I'd be curious as to what else is in the tank where they were spawned. I was concerned that mine were getting inbred because I was seeing more stripes than I had been seeing. I called Dave (Dave's Rare Fish in San Antonio), and he suggested that they may have crossed with the Red Top trewavassae - there was a mail with no females present at that time. He said I ought to look at the mouths of the offspring, and sure enough several exhibited the hint of an "overbite" (not really that but you get the idea, I hope) characteristic of the Labeotropheus trewavassae. Do you have an unattached male mbuna of some kind that could be mating with female yellow labs? Not sure if they could cross with peacocks or not.

[jennisof]

I purchased these as small fry, so I don't know their parentage. One particular male has an interesting pinkish color to his lip when he is showing more dark coloration. They're actually an interesting color morph, but not what I expect in a lab, and I don't particularly want to produce "muddy" rather than "clear" lab offspring...but not ready to evict them just yet. Looks like the one in the vid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO6Hbb1h0WI

[JIM]

Most likely they have a gene from some darker species. Unless you buy known wild caught fishes, the chances of getting pure strains is pretty slim.

[Austy16414]

+1 to Jim's comment. Labs are very prolific tank-bred fish, so it's increasingly difficult to discern their true origin

[Linh Nguyen]

I see those colors all the time in LFS.