# Aulonocara 'Firefish' Females



## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

Okay I went to my LFS today and bought two Aulonocara, one is a 'Firefish' which I believe is a male, and the other is an unknown Aulonocara female. So my question is are the 'Firefish' males the only sex to have bright colours or do the females also have colour?

Sorry I know it's a tricky one as the 'Firefish' are man made hybrids, but want to try and determine if I definetly have a male or female.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

The females are peachy or pinkish or whitish. They can be a little colorful, a matter of opinion, but males should have the more intense color with shiny blue. One of these hybrid females should be easy to tell apart from true Aulonocara.


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

Thanks noki. I'll post some pics later to help determine whether I have a male or female, altough following your description I am leaning towards the latter. My LFS only stocks Red, OBs, and Firefish and I would like to have a go at breeding Peacocks.


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

These peacocks (firefish, etc) should not be called aulonocara. Aulonocara 'firrefish' is doubly inappropriate.

There is a chance that your female is a genetic throwback. I have seen firefish fry that were normally colored.


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

Number6 said:


> These peacocks (firefish, etc) should not be called aulonocara. Aulonocara 'firrefish' is doubly inappropriate.
> 
> There is a chance that your female is a genetic throwback. I have seen firefish fry that were normally colored.


Sorry, I've been on the forum long enough I should know better. 

Here are some pics of the fish (sorry for poor quality pics). The fish in the background is the other Peacock female of unknown origin-

















If this is a female would it breed with and OB Peacock male?


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

That female matches both the throwbacks i have seen as well as other man made peacock breeds. It can and likely will breed with both the males. OB males will breed with a willing female!


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

Thanks again Number6, guess it's back to the LFS tomorrow to get a male then. Knowing my luck all the decent ones will have gone, they seem to go very quickly, hopefully there will still be some left as this was really colourful group. Nice to see a brightly coloured female 'Peacock' for a change. :thumb:


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

Apologies, i thought you were asking about the brown female in the background. The fish in the foreground looks more like a very young male (stunted possibly based on size of the eye)


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## Melanochromis (Mar 30, 2005)

Number6 said:


> Apologies, i thought you were asking about the brown female in the background. The fish in the foreground looks more like a very young male (stunted possibly based on size of the eye)


No worries. Will this guy breed with the female? How can you tell for sure if a fish is stunted?


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## Champagne4us (Mar 17, 2018)

Melanochromis said:


> Okay I went to my LFS today and bought two Aulonocara, one is a 'Firefish' which I believe is a male, and the other is an unknown Aulonocara female. So my question is are the 'Firefish' males the only sex to have bright colours or do the females also have colour? I'll
> Sorry I know it's a tricky one as the 'Firefish' are man made hybrids, but want to try and determine if I definetly have a male or female.


I know this thread is really old but I wanted to add an updated version on this topic. I've recently been buying these fish from <vendor name removed>. They are an amazing site where you can order specifically males, females, colonies or unsexed Cichlids. My first pair of juveniles: one was solid dark orange the other had a dark orange head and clearly peach colored body. I believe the 2 toned is a female because my Red Jacobfreibergi Male killed the solid orange one. I ordered 3 more unsexed juveniles and one is peach body, orange head the other 2 solid dark orange. They are about 1.5" and in a mixed tank with the same sized Cichlids. I'm noticing my other mixed male peacocks in the tank are only bothering the dark orange ones. I'm in the trial phase right now, but I put the 2 toned one in my 150 gallon tanks with about 30 other mixed peacocks, mbunas and haps. All from 2"-5". After 2 weeks nobody had bothered her a bit. Now that's the one with the dark orange head and peach body. I'm going to move my other 3 today from my small tank and see if my observations are correct. I half way expect the larger males to go after the 2 solid dark orange ones. No worries I will rescue them if I see trouble. The only other dark orange in the 150 gallon is a 3" female Red Zebra who never bothers any one. So I'll try it today. I could have started a new thread but I'm still new to this so started here. After all this is the first thing that came up when I typed in Firefish Cichlids. Should help because no one ever said they were peach colored from the gills back which definately would have helped me since 2 of my 5 are peach not red and blue? But juveniles tho. Beautiful fish! For the record as juveniles the males are dark orange and females slightly larger with orange heads and peach colored bodies from the gills back. Hope this helps someone currently.


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