Hormoned females show color?

[peacockkeeper]

I bought 2 fish I thought were males about three weeks ago. The first one is a sunshine peacock and the second one was a bi-colored peacock. I never realized that females could show so much color when hormones but I have definitely learns my lesson. The sunshine is just over 2" and was showing good yellow coming through when I bought it and the bi-color was about 2-1/2" and had bright egg spots and some color in the body. When I got them home they both lost some color in a few days but I was still hoping they were males. Since, my bi-color lost all it's color and is definitely looking like a female. The sunshine still kept decent yellow color and I thought it was male so imagine my surprise when 2 days ago I noticed that "She" was holding. I'm assuming that the father is the peacock in the second pick who was in the tank because he got bullied out of the all male tank. He was about to be re homed for 2 reasons 1 he got beat up 2 I got him before I knew what I was doing and he is most likely a hybrid from a mixed Ciclid tank. I'm not going to do it but I can't help but wonder how a grown fish would look with that combo. I guess my question would be is it normal for hormoned females to show good color and if so I guess I will have to be more careful when picking out fish.

 

[peacockkeeper]

It won't let me upload pic sorry

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

It's not hormones, young peacocks don't have intense colors, they just started getting their color at that size. They lost it because of stress or they aren't dominate in the new tank. I have plenty of male peacocks that show no color because they get bossed around and are sub dominates. Give them time and good food and clean water and their colors will come back

 

[peacockkeeper]

It's not hormones, young peacocks don't have intense colors, they just started getting their color at that size. They lost it because of stress or they aren't dominate in the new tank. I have plenty of male peacocks that show no color because they get bossed around and are sub dominates. Give them time and good food and clean water and their colors will come back

I have had plenty of peacocks and am aware of how they color up with age but these two fish were showing good color like males and both turned out to be females. The one who had the best color when I bought it the sunshine is currently holding so it's definitely not a stressed male. I kind of remember reading somewhere that hormones females will show some color like males but am realizing that it may be true.

 

[squirrilah fish]

Did you vent the other one? A fish can fool you on gender all the way up to adulthood. If vent them to be sure. Many males, especially in an all male tank will show absolutely no color until adulthood.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

This is the second time in the past week, Ive heard someone talking about females and hormones and losing color. This is not true, males will lose their color for a variety of reasons. Just because it isn't showing color doesn't mean its a female. I have tons of males who don't show color. My buddy breeds thousands of haps and peacocks, and I have never heard anything about hormones. If your not sure, catch them out and vent them.

 

[tali931]

Places like petsmart or petco order juvenile peacock about an inch in size which are all brightly colored. I recently asked a petsmart fish menager about this. She didn't belive me that her distributor would have hormonally colored juvenile fish so she contacted him. She showed me the reply email she got . It pretty much said that all the juvenile peacocks they have are fed food packed with hormones in order to bring out the color in baby fish so they look more appealing in pet stores. Then she letter stated that this is a safe practice a lot of fish distributors use. I've only seen fish like that at petsmart so far. The distributor said it's a safe practice and not harmful to fish but I don't agree. How can tricking a baby female into being an adult male be any good or healthy for a fish?

 

[squirrilah fish]

It is definitely not safe! It can lead to kidney and especially liver problems, makes them sterile, and can give them ugly brown spots as they get older.

Can, not always.

 

[peacockkeeper]

Found this article online tend to believe it because my 2 are definitely female not stressed males and they were showing way to much color that faded quickly. They were in a tank by themselves for two weeks so it wasn't a case of them just being sub dominant or stressed.

http://www.ohiexchange.com/armke/raging_hormones.html