# strawberry peacocks



## cichlidgirl1

Hello,
I have 4 strawberrypeacocks, two have pointed anal fins and are larger, the other two have same coloring but with rounded fins. they are 1.5-2 in right now, are the rounded finned ones females or are they still changing into adult coloring? They are the albino type with red eyes, they are all EXTREMELY hotpink or hotpink/orange. One "male is dark hot pink/light hotpink and the other is orange/hot pink. both rounded finned fish are orange/hot pink .I can take a couple pics and upload photo if that would be helpful.


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## grigas9

Round fins are usually a sign of female but at that size it may still be hard to tell for sure. Pics would help but still the fish may be too small for certainty. 8)


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## cichlidgirl1

this is a picture of the strawberry peacock, because of the eyes it is obviously a albino of some sort, but which one? I am thinking aulonocara alibino or aulonocara alibino eureka. I did notice that the anal fin is not solid color but is transparent and has egg spots on one of the males.
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff186/amandas_photo_2007/strawberryredempressfronts069.jpg

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff186/amandas_photo_2007/strawberryredempressfronts031.jpg


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## rockincichlid

They look extremely hormoned to me. That is not a natural color the probably have been hormoned and dyed. I would return them to where ever you got them. There is no way of telling male form female or the species until the dye and hormones get out of the fishes systems.

Hope this helps :thumb:

Rockincichlid


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## bulldogg7

Albinos coloring up??? These look like dyed fish. They will never color up. Especially if albino. take them back and cuss the manager with every single four letter word you can think of. Say no to store credit and demand cash back! When's the last time you saw an albino purple black-man? Normally i'm all for what floats your boat. But ****, don't ever do that to an aulono.


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## Fogelhund

bulldogg7 said:


> Albinos coloring up??? .


Many albino africans can colour up. These ones I agree are somehow "enhanced"... but ....


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## bulldogg7

Fogelhund said:


> bulldogg7 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Albinos coloring up??? .
> 
> 
> 
> Many albino africans can colour up. These ones I agree are somehow "enhanced"... but ....
Click to expand...

 sorry i got off track. Never seen a purple albino though. Just curious, what colors are possible for an albino to show? I have a m.Zebra only colors are yellow and a bit more yellow on dorsal tips. Can albino (not lutino) show color?


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## mikmaze

definately injected / dyed fish, saw a batch of them at a lfs, told them if they were still there ina week, I wold no longer shop there knowing their attitude and patronizing of the practice......... they were gone btw, one week later, and not sold, they got rid of them and chewed out the vendor supposedly.


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## Fogelhund

bulldogg7 said:


> I have a m.Zebra only colors are yellow and a bit more yellow on dorsal tips. Can albino (not lutino) show color?


Do a search on Albino Eureka Peacocks. That's a good start.


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## mitch71h

bulldogg7 said:


> take them back and cuss the manager with every single four letter word you can think of. Say no to store credit and demand cash back!


Bad advise. Definately bring back, but no cussing. Most store managers STOP negotiating when they hear the first cuss word. I should know, I am one. (not LFS, but retail all the same) My mother always told me, "you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar"


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## cichlidgirl1

Im curious, how can you tell these fish are dyed and hormoned and the fish with the same basic color patterns in fish profile pics on various websites are not. is the intesity of color and age of fish? ? Is it because these fish are females 2 in and males 2.5 and all ready have color and fin definition? Please look at the profile pics on this website , look at the eureka albino, they have a Pic of fish that look exactly like mine, they even have the colorless vertical banding. The only difference i can see (im not an expert but i have studied pics of these fish for several days) is my fish have a more intense pink color up by the dorsal fin. I have noticed that even that changes depending on what light bulb is hood and also natural light compared to florecent etc...


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## cichlidgirl1

also, how long does it take for the dye to work out of a dyed fish, in general? Weeks or months?


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## cichlidgirl1

I had others on another website that specializes in cichlids tell me that they are most likely not dyed, specificly because peacocks are not a species that "take to dying" .that the color was most likely natural or possiable albino hybridization with numerous peacocks to get the specialized color variety. I did see the exact coloration on another fish located on your website, several of the profile pictures for the albino eureka aulonocara match this fish , especially the male. Just thought i would let you all know. thanks


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## Dave

cichlidgirl1 said:


> I had others on another website that specializes in cichlids tell me that they are most likely not dyed, specificly because peacocks are not a species that "take to dying" .


 This might make one think they are not, but it is not proof one way or the other. However, the color in some of those fish is not natural, with hormoning being a very good possibility as well. Something, by the way, that is very common in peacocks (again, not proof). Color that intense in such a young fish is what makes everyone suspect "enhancement".


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## cichlidgirl1

I plan on keeping them. Am i correct in thinking if they have been enhanced in someway through dye or hormone they should revert to the normal coloring after a period of time or is it permanant? what happens when the hormone wears off, does a female fish that is male with hormone have the pointed part of its fin revert to rounded when the hormone wears off? does a female develop a pointed fin if it was really male? If the fish acheieved this color from hybridization the color should stay correct? This fish is for my own personal enjoyment, i have no plans to throw this poor fish away or return it to the store and raise a big stink. I asked if the fish was dyed at the time of purchase they told me no. I did not ask about the hormone , who knows , could be. I dont really even care if a shop volenteers any of this info as long as they are truthful when i do ask a specific question. I figure if i dont care enough to ask why should they care enough to say something that would lower the price of their goods?. Any serious collector of fish would surely ask if the shop has a reliable honest breeder that they get stock from.


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## bulldogg7

Oligomelanic, not true albino. Thanks fogelhund, learned me another word. They may not be dyed, i think the dye would wear off about 3 months if they were. Just the effects of selective hybridization possibly, kinda like blood parrots. Lots of people linebreed (inbreed) for special traits, just never seen that shade of pink as a result. As for sexing you could vent them. Since the drab female thing won't work. Hope the fry show that coloring!


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## cichlidgirl1

I will keep an eye on them and take more pics of them as they get bigger . to post here. It is possiable that they were dyed , if the bright pink on the back were not present they would be the typical color pattern for young albino eureka. I did a search engine on albino peacock images and a couple of the hits that came up showed adult females a solid peach/orange (light but nice looking), that is what the rest of the body looks like, are there any photos or information on the tell tale signs of injection sites? How to spot tampered with fish besides the color issue?? Such as marks on the body etc...


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## pkut

cichlidgirl1, Do you have any current, updated pictures of the subject fish. It would be interesting to see them now.


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## cichlidgirl1

I sold them a couple months ago because they looked so colorful, I had no trouble selling fry and eventually the adult fish as well. I kept 4 -6 fry to grow out just to have. Here is the most current pics of one of them before i sold them. it turned out to be 3 males and 1 female. I had 2 pair up and I let them breed. Their color did mellow a small amount but they kept the general bright coloration. I noticed that they came in two shades, pink and orange. Their babies all so come in the pink and orange variations. Both colorations have yellow highlights on them. The small babies in these pics are now about 5 mo old and are two inches, they look very nice and are starting to get darker colors. I had thought the orange ones were female, but found out that has nothing to do with it, i had males both orange and pink. I will try to get a current pic of the babies now 5 mo old and post those as well. .

Here is the male :









Here is the female :









Here are fry from these two :


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## pkut

cichlidgirl1, Thanks for posting the new pictures. These fish are very interesting looking.


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## cichlidgirl1

Yes, they are very colorful. I did alot more research over the past months of owning them and think they bred from one or more albino auloncara species. When i study all the albino auloncara photos i see bits of several fish in them. They dont match just one perfectly. They are beautiful and even when spawning are not particularly aggressive. They are really good in with some haps, i noticed some other peacock males will dislike them and try to fight the males but that is fairly common in all of the species.


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