Posted by cindy on January 31, 2003 at 09:21:42:
In Reply to: Sounds like a Black Moor....occasionally they do posted by Michele on January 30, 2003 at 17:38:13:
...began to change color last July. The more pics I see of big moors (like cmartens and others,) the more I believe that color change may not be normal for the black moor, but that there may be way too many hybrids sold as "black moors," and not correctly labelled as hybrids. (Just an opinion, not based on any proof.)
All the larger black moors I have seen (at shops and on the net) are much darker than mine, and have the classic round shape and really bulged out eyes that you would expect. When I look into the tanks with the smaller (less expensive, $2-4) BM at the LFS in my town, they have some like that, but more that are long and slender, like commons, and the eyes are not very bulged out, and frequently they are not very black (more of a bronze, or at least the black on the back fades to bronze on the belly.) I believe these to be hybrids, possibly produced in spawnings in community type ponds. Of course, since PETsMART and Petco and the big chains don't buy or trade for store credit from locals, I would think their suppliers would only breed BM's with each other, and not allow hybridization to occur, so I could easily be wrong.
Mine began to change last July, and continues to this day. I am not going to get rid of him, but I did get another (hopefully full-blooded) black moor a few months ago. I hope he gets as big as cmartens' in 7-10 years or so, but he'll never be as beautiful. I haven't seen butterfly tails on BM in my area, just on some calicos and red and whites.
Now I'm trying to find out what the "veil tail" they posted about on the GF forum yesterday is. I can't find anything about them in GF, just bettas and other fish.
