[LexBubble]

I have a a peacock tank and have (IMHO) some beautiful fish. However I got some that I know are males because when I bought them they had a decent amount of coloration, but now they have either lost some of their color or they lost almost all their olor (resembling femlaes). It happened to two of my Blue Regal Stuartgranti and my Lwanda. So:

1) Is this normal?

2) What can be the cause of this?

3) What can I do to bring out their colors? Other than lighting cuz my lighting is pretty good.

Thanks

 

[Gibbs]

I agree there are alot of peacocks that are stunning once mature.

This is not good behaviour that you are experiencing and usually means that the fish is under stress, uncomfortable or female. Most peacocks won't hold their colour in a tank that is to small for them to

What size tank are they in?
What are you feeding them?
What are the other tank mates?
How long have you had them?
How long do you leave your lights on for?

The more info you provide, the more we can help

 

[copasetic]

If they were given hormones, females would have shown male colorations and then faded away over time. If they are male it was the stress of another male that caused them to loose color, maybe there is a simular type to each in the tank already.

 

[Gibbs]

If they were given hormones, females would have shown male colorations and then faded away over time

That is a good point, did you buy the fish that have faded from the same place and around the same time?

 

[LexBubble]

As a matter of fact most of them were from the same place and one of the employees there told me that one of their tanks (a borleyi tank) were so brightly colored because they were injected with hormones but he said that was the only time they have ever bought fish with hormone injection.

I feed them Ocean Nutrition Cichlid Omni Formula once a day and often times supplement their diet with frozen foods. You name it I got it frozen.

The lights, I keep them on about five hours a day and it's a Current light. It has two different lights day time and moonlight at night.

The tank mates can also be a problem. I have a dominant Aulonocara Jacobfriebergi, under him the next most dominant fish is my German Red, and next to him is my P. Neyerei who is actually one of the youngest fish in there but is just a beast. The only thing with the stress theory, though, is that I have an A. Rubescens in there is gets punked all day by the first two and he is pretty bright.

Hope this helps you answer my issue

 

[cichlidaholic]

What size tank is this?

Are you trying to keep multiple males of one species?

Are you building an all male tank?

They may very well have been hormoned, but lets look at the whole picture.

Kim

 

[LexBubble]

I don't they have been hormoned because unlike the borleyi tank I mentioned abovewhere all the fish looked like bright males, only the male that I purchased was showing color while the other young fish in the tank were colorless.

my tank is a 55 gal.

I was actually breeding my jacobfreibergi so I got him 3 females that all spawned, and my german red spawned with a female that I have for him. So apart from those 4 females the rest are males (or so I assumed).

The rest of the males include:
Ruby Red
Sunshine Peacock
Taiwan Reef
A. Lwanda
Blue Regal Stuartgranti x2

So that's twelve fish total. Thirteen with Pleco

 

[cichlidaholic]

Unless you witnessed the entire spawns, it's impossible to say that the fry will be pure and not hybrids.

You can't safely breed peacocks for distribution with more than one species in a tank. That's about the highest risk if hybridization you can run.

I would either go all male or single species if you're interested in breeding.

And I wouldn't let any of those fry leave my tanks. :thumb:

Kim

 

[LexBubble]

I witnessed two of the four matings. Three of the females have spit them out already and the fourth is still holding. The fourth one is the German Red and I'm all but sure the fry are going to be hybrid but as for the one breeding I didn't witness I'm pretty sure it's pure. The Jacobfreibergi is dominant and doesn't tolerate any other males in his site. Not only that he's the only one shimmying around. Plus all the other males are pretty small. 2 inches maybe.

 

[cichlidaholic]

Keep in mind that spawns can go on for hours, I've even seen them drawn out over two days in one case. So unless you pull the female from the tank immediately, anything is possible. Yes, I can imagine that male jake being your dominant fish, but all it takes is another male running into that female on the other side of the rocks.

It's just not a good practice to breed more than one peacock species in a tank.

Kim