are these flag fish?

hey guys. a couple of friends went dipnetting today along Alligator Alley down here in south florida.
we've always caught flag fish around this area, but the pictures i was sent of today's fish have me a little confused.
body shape looks like flag fish, and the location is correct, but some of them were all silver, and some were all honey gold.
are these melanistic morphs or J. floridae? or something else? i had never heard of this?



thanks for the help!

Flag fish.
Top is a female. Bottom looks to be a young male.

Rick

rick,
I have caught many flagfish, in varying sizes. even the smallest ones we've encountered (smaller than these) have shown the regular flag fish coloration.

my question is, are these melanistic morphs? is this a common occurrence?

Oops, I was too quick with the bottom photo, it looks to be a post spawn female. The completely faded body spot threw me.

I've got a few yellowish females in one of my tanks now. They were spawning over the last few weeks with one of the big males. It seems to take it out of them.

Some pics from tonight of the two post-spawn females:





The silvery female in the top pic looks to be fairly washed out. The typical blotches are there, just faded. I've seen a lot of quick variation in fish over just a few minutes. From dusky dark to washed out in seconds. Nothing too unusual.

The post-spawn female yellow coloring seems to last about a month or two (in my tanks) before they fade back to the blotchy dark on silver color and fatten back up.
In short, I don't think it isn't a color morph, but just variation from spawning stress.

Rick

Edited by rickwrench, 22 December 2009 - 11:46 PM.

wow! are they group spawners? it's my understanding that several of the honey golden colored fish were collected that day. that's got to be quite a sight underwater

thanks for the help with the coloration. wasnt aware of this change in color at all!

Edited by trojannemo, 23 December 2009 - 05:30 AM.

I haven't observed them in the wild, just in a bunch of different heavily planted tanks (from 5g --> 240g). They spawn whenever a female is ready, which, in aquariums seems a random event. With the relative stability of southern Florida water temps, I'd guess there is no definite spawning "season", just continuous opportunistic spawning (but I don't know for sure).
From what I've seen, a male will pick what he considers a good area and then chase various females around until he finds one that is interested. Sometimes none are and he gives up after a few days. Sometimes he manages to "get lucky" and convince a female to spawn for a few hours, he'll then fan the eggs for several days until they hatch (or are eaten by snails).
Flagfish also frequently exhibit tail standing, and more rarely, slow twirling, backflips, rolls, etc. It -could- be courtship dancing, sometimes, but I think it is more related to the dominance and pecking order in the tank.
Also, with that side spot, when the FF tail stands, it looks somewhat like a head-on view of a much larger sunfish. If the fake-out ploy doesn't work, and they are directly menaced, they are pre-aimed straight up. An unexpected direction of escape.

Dipnetting in December for FF, mollies, bluespots, killies, warm weather...

Rick (jealous)

Flagfish are noted for their habit of spawning in numerous different ways, choosing a method that best fits their current situation. That's very unusual, and really cool. My guess is that it's entirely possible that whatever put one set of fish in the spawning mood probably did the same to the rest in the pond, resulting in a lot of spawning going on, even if it wasn't "group" spawning.