# Juiced Cichids



## plug (Nov 10, 2013)

I keep hearing this term

What exactly does this mean? I understand they use hormones to enhance the colour of the fish, but how do they do this and what hormones and where do they get them from?

Who is doing this?


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## The Cichlid Guy (Oct 18, 2014)

Fish enhanced with hormones show false color, i.e. juveniles with full adult coloration, females with male coloration, completely unnatural colors on otherwise bland fish.

It's usually the suppliers, feeding foods that have little to no nutritional value, but are high in color-enhancing hormones. It can cause health problems in the fish, including sterility and stunted growth, and is essentially a dishonest practice. Juvenile fish are usually colorless, so adding hormones allows suppliers (and stores) to sell them more easily, but the colors don't last more than a few weeks after the fish leave the supplier, leading to angry customers with tanks full of fish that have suddenly turned dull.


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## Maximus74 (Mar 31, 2014)

what do you mean by "stunted growth"... Does it mean they will stop growing or that they will grow slower?

I am asking because I have some peacocks cichlids that lost there colours, looks healthy but don't seem to grow at all...

A LFS told me that cichlids from Singapore are all hormoned and he only orders from Germany where they don't feed hormones. Does this makes sens? Is there other locations where they practice this hormoned stuff?

Thanks.


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## RandyS (Feb 6, 2015)

I think I experienced this just yesterday.
I was in a big box pet store and they had a little tiny peacock in full color. 
Are there any peacocks that show color at an inch long?


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## plug (Nov 10, 2013)

I have had most of my cichlids for about a year since they were purchased, and they have all kept whatever colours they had (some were plain as they were bought small), so I can safely assume none were juiced, because if they were, any ones with colour would have surely lost it by now

So is it safe to assume any small cichlid that has great colours is more than likely juiced...especially the Haps and Peacocks? I know some young mbunas have nice colours even when they are tiny...like yellow labs


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

If the cichlid is small (young) and too young to have those colors, hormones may have been used. Since haps and peacocks are silver when fry you can generalize about them.


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