[adamsegev]

Hi, I have two jewels that were bought from the same batch of fry (got them at 6 weeks old).

I've had them for close to a year.
Both of them were the same size until now, same color, same everything. About a month ago one of them rapidly grew to 3 times the size of the other. The smaller one changed color to almost... white. The fish isnt sick at all, has a very well appetite and is just behaving normally. What bothers me is: Is one female? Which type of jewels are these?

Thanks,

Sorry about the crappy quality of these pics...
first, smaller one that changed color.

this is the bigger one...

 

[Guest]

Hi there...

well I'm not an expert but the second one looks to be a Hemichromis lifalili...but I can't see the dark spot on its flank that you normally see on 'forest jewels'. Maybe this is just the photo, or that the fish is still juvenile?

A lot of lifalili are atually just really striking guttatus, which is what the smaller of your pair looks like to me...so maybe they are Hemichromis Guttatus, with the nice red one just being a nicely colored one.

they could also both be lifalili, its just that one is the dominant of the two, and the other is female, which explains the colour difference. It could be a male that is keeping its colours down so as to avoid trouble from the other?

Sorry I haven't really helped there have I?

...Over to the experts!

Joe