@gentle lemur you are absolutely right, as it stands this orange form is what is currently keeping the species alive in the South-east Asian trade.
I would love to get the wild-form some day, however shipping a "common fish" from India/Sri Lanka to here is just not worth it... I have kept and maintained a colony of Etroplus canarensis in the past, which I find to be the prettiest cichlid from the region.
I kept a pair of the wild type many years ago for a short time: but I then I had a chance to get something I wanted more (if I remember rightly) and I took them to use in a display tank on the British Cichlid Association stand at the British Aquarists Festival in Manchester, passing them on to a friend at the end of the show - to my amazement they spawned that day, after doing nothing at all in my tank!
Incidentally, the fish in the photo all look like males, as females have white lines beside the top and bottom of the caudal fin. Could this be another example of hormone tratment?
