# peacock



## fishfoley (Feb 7, 2010)

i bought a baby eureka red and a sunshine peacock and neither have much color more grayish silver why is that? Will they go change color maturity. My first peacocks by the way i have always had africans


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## GaFishMan1181 (Dec 17, 2008)

Peacocks are africans. Males will start showing color between 2"-3". Until that time you will not know if your fish are males or females.


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## shaguars7 (Apr 12, 2009)

yes if there male they will mature and colour up


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## fishfoley (Feb 7, 2010)

so females wont color up?


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

fishfoley said:


> so females wont color up?


No.


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## tires_6792 (Mar 25, 2005)

ONe way to help give you an idea of guessing the male peacocks when young is to look at the dorsal fin. Males can have white tips or edging to it.


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## firenzena (Nov 29, 2009)

Also look for hint of eggspots on tips of anal fin, and males will start to get hint of blue in the chin.

Peacocks at a young age will take longer to 'colour up' if in with more dominant fish which is often hard to avoid due to their relatively docile manner compared to many africans, so a little growout tank can be beneficial.

open spaces with plenty of rocks to hide.


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## Sheribobbins (Jan 13, 2010)

Egg spots and white on dorsal don't always mean male I have had some that have those things and are female. Wait for them to grow like was said above and the male will color up.


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## tires_6792 (Mar 25, 2005)

Sheribobbins said:


> Egg spots and white on dorsal don't always mean male I have had some that have those things and are female. Wait for them to grow like was said above and the male will color up.


True. I personally had pretty good luck this way. A lot may depend on the variant or if line bred etc.

I was also lucky enough to have a line of Ruby reds where i had a male starting to color at @1-1/2". Makes it soooo much easier that way...lol.


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## greggb (Feb 4, 2010)

I'm in a similar situation with 3 peacocks in a tank along with labs. The peacocks are the largest fish in the tank.

1 Sulphur head, about 3.5"
1 Blue regal, about 3.25"
1 Eureuka, about 2.5"

The sulphur head has colored up nicely. The Eureka has always been fairly colorful. The blue regal was pretty nicely colored up when I got him, because he'd been injected with hormones. He lost his colors within about two weeks and to this day (over 3 months later) is still a gray color. His dorsal fin has turned a sort of faint light-blue color, but other than that he's pretty much just shades of gray.

I was wondering it it's possible that a hormone injection could cause a female to show male colors? Which might explain why the regal is so dull-colored, even at over 3"?

Thanks!


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Yes that is possible.


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## BLACK_AFRICAN (May 21, 2008)

Sheribobbins said:


> Egg spots and white on dorsal don't always mean male.


Agree, however, Tires-6792 & Firenza is still correct, as the majority of times this is more true than not, it's not 100% but it is a good indication.

Males = thick white strip on the tip of dorsal fin and more than one egg spots or large egg spots. The tip of anal fin and all other fins are longer too and more pointed than the female.

Females = thin white strip and then an orange tip at the edge of the dorsal fin and small egg spots that are generally faint. Can have orange colouring on fins also.

We can't 100% predict juvies, however, for those who need a good indication this is the best measurement to use for Eurekas.


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## tires_6792 (Mar 25, 2005)

BLACK_AFRICAN said:


> Sheribobbins said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I will be putting this to the test again myself. I have 6 ruby red at 1" ordered and will be here next week. Maybe we all can have fun trying to guess as they grow...lol.

The only thing with line bred fish such as these ruby reds.... the females can also have red in their bodies.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I don't know about peacocks, but with mbuna the egg spots maybe only give you 51% chance of getting a male. So it's an indicator, but pretty much completely unreliable. Just as much chance of picking a male if you are blindfolded, LOL.


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## tires_6792 (Mar 25, 2005)

another thing is the aggression. i usually watch and see what one is being the boss. alot of times that can help. but, just like everything else....its not guaranteed as if you had multiple females in the same tank they would also establish a heirarchy amongst themselves.

How big are the fish in question? 1" 2" ?


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## tires_6792 (Mar 25, 2005)

> *tires_6792: * I will be putting this to the test again myself. I have 6 ruby red at 1" ordered and will be here next week. Maybe we all can have fun trying to guess as they grow...lol.


ok so i got my ruby reds in and they were really small @3/4". I have some now that are 1-1/4". I can start to tell which are males and females. I may not be 100% here but i do feel confident that im right and i guess time will tell.

I cant really go by the first signs of red that start to show as this line has females that also get a good amount of red on them. So, I am going by the way they are acting in the tank right now and taking into consideration the dorsal fin to make my "guess" on the sexes.

here are the pics:

*1.* 









*2. *


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## Brisch (May 25, 2010)

Top looks male bottom looks female IMO


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

i have noticed my females tend to only have one egg spot and it's usually small and sometimes on the edge of the fin so it's not complete, some males have small single egg spots, but only males have shown multiple egg spots so far, so i might agree until someone finds a female with multiple egg spots


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## tires_6792 (Mar 25, 2005)

Brisch said:


> Top looks male bottom looks female IMO


Top is female and bottom is male.

Im going to put a guess out there to what my ratio is. The biggest is @ 1-1/4" & the smallest is about 3/4".

I believe i have 3M/4F. Im not 100% as the 3/4" is kinda throwing me a little. but if i had to bet $$ i would say female. I guess we'll see soon. ill keep it updated to see if it works. (Dorsal fin)


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## tires_6792 (Mar 25, 2005)

tires_6792 said:


> Brisch said:
> 
> 
> > Top looks male bottom looks female IMO
> ...


well, it looks like i was right. they are well over 2" or so, and i had 3M/4F like i had guessed. but i had lost a female for an unknown reason. not sure if aggression as none of the fish ever seemed sick.  So its 3 & 3 left.

The dorsal is mostly what i went by to guess correctly.

IF anyone has some pics maybe i can help.


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## gverde (Mar 3, 2010)

I have a lone female blue cobalt hybrid that has several eggs spots. She is in a all male 220 gal. hap/peacock tank. She only gets chased by my only two mbunas in the tank, a red zebra and a yellow lab hybrid.


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## granites2001 (Apr 20, 2011)

I have had several drab colored fish (peacocks) here with lots of eggspots who have turned out to be girls and raised young for me.

Lisa


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