I think you are saying that your specimens are essentially tank raised?
One would want to be careful about making color-based observations on tank
raised fish. Diet can easily effect color. Maybe they're not getting
enough of the nutrient that produces the blue pigment. Also, color in
males varies dramatically with season and breeding condition. Typically,
rainbow darters maintained long term in aquaria do not display their full
color potential. So there's another excuse to go out collecting. See what
the wild fish look like in the height of the breeding season. Get photos
and I'll post them to the web for others to evaluate. I'm collecting
multiple images of each species I can get so that you can see the
variation. I'm doing sunfish and everything else too. Sunfish are
extremely variable. Especially the longear.
Mark
Ohio
USA
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