Gene code or food?

Hi everyone! I have some questions about fish appearance.
Can a fish only become as pretty as its genetics will allow? Or can good diet and environment make all the difference? Or is this difference between breeding and diet specific to the breed? I assume 2 electric yellows will only be as pretty as their genetics allow and both will be similar looking in different environments , but does the same apply for 2 jack dempseys? Hybrids will surely be different but does the quality of the fish's genetic line put a limit on how pretty the jack Dempsey will get regardless of how wonderfull the diet?

Gene pool plays the biggest part. Food will enhanche color. Genes will trumph food.

So how does one know what they are getting when they go to the fish store and select a few young fish? Seems everywhere you go they pretty much all look the same, is there a way to know what your fish end up looking like when it's full grown?

no you wont know doogan unless you look at the parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc.... the average keeper probably doesnt keep records or go to great lengths to verify successive lines. imagine the records and efforts puts in by professional dog breeders to top quality animals without defects. many breeders either neuter and sell less than show-quality animals or just destroy inferior specimens.

getting anything from a store is likely a cr@p shoot with a handful of dice. only way to know what youre going to get is getting an animal from a private breeder that culls and pairs only the best specimens to get the best genes

in short Genetics is the Independent Variable in the overall look and beauty of the fish. food and habitat are the Dependent Variables.

Hey thanks, I guess I figured that, I just wanted confirmation I suppose. I guess I will just have to raise them and see how they look and then swap them out if better ones present themselves.

record keeping is key. right now im selective breeding for eye-spots on dorsal and caudal fins. my first line breed attempt. after the F2 generation. im going to introduce a "scarlet" gene. then cross line breed after that. then i can determine the gene frequency in kribensis.
lol maybe later down the road i can hopefully map their genome at the university lab. we shall see

Wow that's great, I love that your doing that. Very cool. Theoretically you could make your own variation and name it after yourself! Ha! Do it. :)