# help with vic colour



## auratusguy (Apr 7, 2013)

Hi everyone,

I have an au red victoria hap. I found him by himself in the fish store in a tank with some moderately aggressive mbunas. That's similar to my mixed mbuna tank so I bought him. He was coloured in the store but so far in my tank he is not colouring, just staying a grayish colour. It's been about 3 months, and he is pretty young, maybe 2.5 inches in length. Any ideas on whether he will eventually colour up?

Thanks.


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## StructureGuy (Jul 27, 2002)

auratusguy said:


> I have an au red victoria hap. Any ideas on whether he will eventually colour up?


Maybe tomorrow and maybe never. 
Many male Victorians won't color up for various reasons; water conditions/tank setup not to their liking, no females to display to or maybe it needs to be the dominant fish in the tank to show color.


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## Mschn99 (Dec 24, 2012)

StructureGuy said:


> auratusguy said:
> 
> 
> > I have an au red victoria hap. Any ideas on whether he will eventually colour up?
> ...


I second this. There is no science to getting a victorian to color in a mixed tank. The only way to get for certain great color out of them is a species only breeding tank with females present. Odds are there is a fish in your tank that is overly dominant of him and he does not want to flash the color and risk getting bullied, but as was said before, there are other variables that can cause them to not show color too.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

Im having the same problem in my mixed Malawi/vic tank. My thickskins wont color up. Theyre still young but they should have color by now. Will be moving them to a small tank soon. Hopefully they color up in it! I do have Rock Kribensis in the mix tank too. They have colored up great but are much older than the thickskins.


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## agiversonjr (Nov 6, 2012)

The vics will only color when they are showing off for a female, or when defending territory from another male. the only male i have in my tank has very muted colors most of the time, but, when he's chasing a female BAM he becomes fully saturated with color.


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

I guess my guys are always female showoffs...I always have good color with my males.


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