Originally Posted by
illumnae
hmm ok, you said "If fact, i do not think there are any blue variant A. bitaeniatas. Alike many other species of apistogrammas, the finnages of bitaeniatas are naturally blue", but the bitaeniata i had was purely orange without blue, so i was a little confused about that
You sure there is no blue? 
Your orange variant will look very close to the A. bitaeniata "Mamuri" picture. Only the base of the dorsal, the ventrals and both ends of the tail is orange. In some, the fringe of the dorsal menbrane is also covered with orange. Hence your "orange" and not naturally blue definition arised.
If you did observe closely, the other parts of the fins that are not covered with the orange colour is blue (when in neutral, courting mood). Its the blue iridescence that is natural in the fins of a A. bitaeniata (very evident in doubleace specimen in courting mood). Take for example the tail of doubleace specimen. The tail is filled with blue checkered iridescence and when he gets aggressive, inbetween the blue iridescence gets filled with red checkered patterns and this is when you see the fish turning red.
Hope i am not confusing you. Perhaps in simple terms...
Take away all the orange colour in your fish,
Take away the "angry red juice" that is flowing in the fish veins,
What do you see? A bluish fish when the iridescence gets pronounced with the light reflection and a rather colourless, pale fish when in the dark.
I used to have a shot of your Ap. bitaeniata "Tefe Bauana" (Orange variant). If its still with me, i'll hook it up for you to see. You can PM me for more clarifications since afterall, this thread is about doubleace excellent A. bitaeniata "Manaquiri" and i'm just commenting on some mis-conception.
Eugene (^_^)
De Dwergcichlide Fanatiek
Now swimming: Plecos and Apistogrammas
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