Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations LMB Color. Is it a big deal?

The LMB in my pond 1 hour east of Dallas are very light in color compared to those in a pond across the road I fished this weekend (rich, dark green). What causes this? Are light colored LMB symptomatic of a problem of some sort? We don't have much vegetation. Have they been sun bleached?

The differnce color is probabaly due to the difference in water clarity. I assume the pond across the road has fairly clear water and more aquatic vegetation in comparison.

The pond with the dark green LMBs has much more vegetation and the water has more of a "rust" or coffee tint to it. I wouldn't say it is clearer though.

I'm sure water color and vegetation plays a big role, but I'll tell you I've been amazed at the color difference between florida (darker) and native strains (lighter). I have 2 of each, both female, and their color difference is remarkable in the same pond.

To add another data point:

I recently got some FL LMB from Todd Overton (between 9-11" long) and they were very silvery, with light green shading and very faint lateral line. We clipped the left Pectoral fin so that this first generation of FL LMB could be tracked. I had previously stocked native LMB (7-9") last Dec. The natives have always had more color and very pronounced lateral black line with dinctinct green-to-white shading from side to belly. We caught one of the FL LMB last Sunday, and it was amazing how much darker and more like the native LMB it looked. Its lateral line was much darker, and the green coloration was much more noticable. Had it not been for the clipped fin, I would have sworn it was a native. Todd had just recently acquired the fish, so they quickly went from one long term home to another. My pond has fairly clear water (still about 24" clarity), but with quite abit of vegitation/floating moss starting to develop. The pond is about 9 ft deep (avg about 6 ft), and located south of Houston. I believe Todd got these FL LMB south of Dallas.

See these on fish coloration and chromatophores

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...true#Post103943

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post85635

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post74247

My moms farm has a little pond and it had real dark water. the bass we caught were real dark green and the bluegill were a dark purple almost black.