C. declivis colour variation.

[LemonLemon]

Hello everyone,

before i start my question i would like to wish everyone a very happy chinese new year. this year's the year of the rabbit! so i wish everyone a very prosperous chinese new year.

ok, well, i noticed that there are two kinds of C. declivis around. the one with predominantly black colouration and the one with much more yellow on it's back.

I personally prefer the yellow one alot but i've only ever saw it once in my country. all others that appear are the black ones. declivis is not rare in my country but the yellow one sure is. colour aside, i love this fish anyway.

scott michael's book list them as 2 sub species. C. declivis declivis (yellow) and C. declivis wilderi (black).





The two pictures above are my C. declivis specimens. the first picture is the one i'm currently keeping, and the second picture was one that i kept in my old tank. which i have tore down, and the fish was sold.

these 2 are from the internet and look how yellow the backs are! also, campbell's recent video of his FOWLR tank shows a pair of v gorgeous yellow specimens.





so the ultimate question is, is the yellow one more available in the U.S? i would love to buy the yellow one if it ever pops up for sale again here but that's going to be awhile. the only yellow one i've seen was 2 years ago and never again.

the black ones just keep coming in!

 

[LemonLemon]

since we're on the topic of roaps butterflies, this is my baby mitratus butterfly. it's doing very well and plays along fine with the declivis, which is much bigger than it.





It's only the size of a AAA battery.

 

[Jacob D]

I've seen, what seems like, quite a few of the more yellow version for sale. I'm sure at least some, if not most of them, came from the Marshall Island area. I have no idea about the rarity of the yellow vs. black. I have seen both; I also prefer the mostly yellow... otherwise I would go for the tinkeri. Who knows, some of them maybe even a possibility of declivis X tinkeri (?) probably more likely just genetic variations of different locales.

 

[Jacob D]

Nice mitratus by the way! Is she eating? I have had a hard time getting them to take any aquarium foods.

 

[LemonLemon]

yes the mitratus was eating straight out of the bag. pellets, flake, you name it.

are you serious? roaps butterflies are some of the hardiest butterflies.

burgess, tinkeri, declivis, mitratus, flavocoronatus and the hybrids all take aquarium fare very very well.

all the roaps i've kept ate on the day of arrival.

how long have you had her? maybe she needs more time

 

[Jacob D]

I've kept a few of the roaps, but have been 0/2 on the mitratus. I could not get them to eat in the QT.

 

[LemonLemon]

i see. i hope you eventually succeed though. mitratus is one of my favourite roaps and super gorgeous. come to think about it i've had one die on me in QT before. many many months ago. refused to feed. but that specimen was large, about 3.5 inch, and it was a transit shipment from hong kong. so i do not know why it died.

ever since then i have had a difficult time obtaining another one because i'm simply too slow. they get snatched up pretty fast and they only appear in onesies and twosies.

finally 6 shipments later i manage to get hold of the tiny one.

anyway this is a pic of the most beautiful declivis butterfly i've seen. it's from a japanese website called poe-poe i think. the fish is tiny, a juvenile, and it's as yellow as a lemon.

 

[snorvich]

I have the black version (I did not know they were separate species) and have never even seen the yellow version in real life. Pretty fish!

 

[SDguy]

since we're on the topic of roaps butterflies, this is my baby mitratus butterfly. it's doing very well and plays along fine with the declivis, which is much bigger than it.





It's only the size of a AAA battery.

Stunning fish! I'm *this* close to finally deciding to get one after those pictures!

 

[snorvich]

Peter, they are excellent fish. Tough, from my experience, good eaters. But be sure and fully quarantine them and treat for flukes.

 

[LemonLemon]

snorvich - yeah the yellow ones are gorgeous. i've only seen it once here and regretted not jumping on it when i had the chance

SDguy - what's holding you back haha. mitratus is ultra gorgeous.

 

[ccampbell57]

Hey Lemon - thought I would chime in on my pair. When they ame in from CXI they had more of a dirty yellow back (when they were 2.5"). As they have grown together they have gotten a very yellow back with a small amount of black.

All the ones from Christmas Island seem to have this coloration. Others from different locals have more pronounced black backs.

IMHO these fishnare some of the heartless fish I own

 

[LemonLemon]

campbell that's interesting.

you mean the yellow developed as they grow older? i've seen plenty of juveniles with yellow colour and plenty of adults with black colour so i did not think it was a juvenile/adult colour thing.

perhaps yours changed it's colour because you have two? i don't know but it sounds interesting!

why are they haeartless? are they very aggressive? mine seems to be very well behaved.

 

[ccampbell57]

Damn iPhone. I meant that they are the most hardy fish i own...they are very well behaved and eat out of my hand when I feed

 

[LemonLemon]

Damn iPhone. I meant that they are the most hardy fish i own...they are very well behaved and eat out of my hand when I feed

haha.

yes mine too is very hardy and loves eating out of my hands. it get's really obese in my tank and i'm trying to get it on a diet now!