# German Red vs. Ruby Red Peacock Coloration



## Tropheus311

Can anyone who has had these before tell me what the main difference in coloration is between a German Red and Ruby Red peacock? Looking at the species profiles, both look identical to me. I'd like to acquire the one with more vibrant red coloration. Thanks for any feedback.


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## chrish777

If your referring to one that looks like the below.. There line bred ruby reds. There aren't to many people that I'm aware of with ones that have the red red color and not the orangeish red so will probley be hard to find and pricey if you don't know where to get them.


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## 13razorbackfan

Just having a conversation with another member about this same issue. I have what we are calling a german red and it is certainly more orange but I think they are line bred for certain colors. Even I still get confused. Here is mine:










I wouldn't mind finding one as red as the one in the pic above but think my current fish would not care too much for him.


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## Michael_M

From what I understand of them, even a red male like the one chris posted still produces fry with variation in colour. The gentlemen I bought my "ruby red" off had a red breeding male (saw it in the flesh) and mine turned out mostly orange.

So if your chasing one that is really red, find a reputable breeder and purchase a whole batch of fry  Then keep the one with the most red!

A possible reason for the substantial variation (note here I'm making assumptions, don't know how colour genetics are passed down in peacocks) would be that 50% of fry inherit genes from mum 50% from dad. Since female peacocks show no colour and look identical to each other it would be very tedious to test which gene (red or orange) she is passing. Thus no matter how much you line breed these peacocks, your always going to get throw backs from half your females.


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## noki

a. it is debatable what exactly is a pure Ruby Red or German Red, and whether fish sold unknown such names are the same as other fish under the same name. Really, it gets very fuzzy.

b. yes, every fish is different. Some are redder, some more yellow-orange, some have more blue, some do not. Some fish are nice, some pretty mediocre. I think that is true that line breeding quality dimorphic fish is not as easy as monomorphic fish, the fish quality is hard to maintain even with natural forms.

c. A very red male like that above has probably been fed live shrimp food of some sort that really intensifies the red color. You may not get the same results.

Ruby Red/ Rubescens seems to look more like a Yellow Maleri except deeper colored. Baenschi may have been mixed in. The body is more orange-red overall.
German Red seem to have more of a red-orange shoulder with more blue in the body. Really, the fish seem to vary alot, sometimes almost looking a Red Shoulder type. Not sure there is one distinct "German Red".


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## 24Tropheus

I realy dunno from the picks I see on this forum in the US they (Aulonocara "Rubescens" I guess) have lost most red colouration.
We still get fish from germany but just all males that look like this.








Its kind of nice to see a realy good one posted here chrish777

Its kind of like they need a lot of selection to keep the colour which was originaly bred into them.
I hear you can increase the red using one tea spoon (5g) of astaxanthin to 1 kilo mix.

Names have kind of lost the little meaning they had. You kind of just need to go to a breeder producing stuff you like the look of and try and get a good female. The stuff in the LFSs are kind of the poor stock sold off.

All the best James


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## chrish777

My buddy has two breeding groups of ones that are really red he has had them for about 3 or 4 years now. All he feeds them are NLS and the off spring are all just as red however it does take them a bit of time to get the really intense red color like the pic above but they still do produce the same fry with no feeding of live foods as noki stated.

And yeah tropheus there aren't many in the US with the red coloration around in the US unfortunately hopefully that can be changed over time.


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