Epiplatys dageti - variant?

[SwitchKillifish]

Hi folks,

I have this male Epiplatys dageti (Red Chinned Panchax) in my aquarium for a few months now. It's a large, (supposedly) fully-grown male around 5.5cm, but looks a bit different from the other smaller male E. dageti in my tank.

This one has the general shape and the signature red chin, but the bands a slightly different + has absolutely no yellow around its fins, compared to the smaller male that has the classic bands and yellow fins. On top of that, its behaviour is also different - he's quite skittish, startles at any movement outside the tank and loses colour very quickly. Voracious eater and tries to breed with the female in the tank.
The online shop I ordered the large male from claims that they buy them strictly from local breeders, but I wonder if this is wild variant of the Epiplatys dageti.

Any thoughts are welcome!

 

[GaryE]

I'd say it's an individual variation. He's short on bands and colour, but they can differ.

 

[Colin_T]

I had variants popping up from time to time when I was breeding them. Most looked similar to each other but some had more bands, some had fewer bands, some bands were shorter or incomplete (like your fish). I had red, orange and yellow varieties (mostly yellow and orange), and some even had colour in their tails. It's just caused by inbreeding and lack of genetic variation.

 

[GaryE]

I once got to unpack a bag of dageti imports from the wild, and there was a degree of variation among the males. I don't think it's inbreeding, but rather just a species with a potential for individual variation.

 

[SwitchKillifish]

That's very interesting. Funny how unique these genetic colour variations can be!

 

[GaryE]

I think you are a bit like me (sorry for your luck). Where I see a big difference between two fishes of the same species, a lot of less interested aquarists will say "they look the same to me".