Sunshine Peacock Losing color?

Whats up guys, so i don't want to sound like a complete idiot, and i know mood and water parameters directly effect fish and their colors.
But, I decided to watch some old videos of my children (fish) and they were just little guys!


Anyways, i purchased 2x Sunshine peacocks. when i got them, their jaw was blueish already, and their color was bright yellow/green.
now they are just black... or even gray... very depressing...


Does anyone have an idea as to why maybe?


i purchased them both thinking they were males, and now i think they are both females :/

if there are larger male peacock sharing the tank or a big male hap, often the smaller males will change back to brown to avoid being picked on.

Did these come from me or the LFS?

I feed mine NLS to enhance thier colors, maybe I wonder if it's the fishfood..

I've also heard of fish that come from fish stores being hormoned to enhance their colors when they are still small and they eventually lose that coloring.

yes,if you got them at the LFS, they came from Asia and all are juiced up with colors. Eventually after being imported into the US, they'll loose thier colors within a few months and regain at maturity.

I have visited that fishfarm that supplied a majority of our local fish stores.

Here is a photo of the juiced up ruby crystal dragonblood I got yrs ago. They lost their colors after a few months

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and here's one that grew out to be:
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and at full grown:
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I got them from a reputable fish store that imports only select types of aulonocara's at a time.


i dont doubt that maybe when they grow a bit some coloring will show, but it kinda made me wonder a bit. Watching old videos of these guys when they were young is kinda shocking.

I would personally add a few females in the tank... this always seems to perk up the males and get the color showing, (itleast for the alpha)... the second male will pretty much always been duller until he takes alpha position..

having females in the tank does help get the males to bring thier colors out. I have sunshine avail 2.5" and up.

gobluecichlids wrote:having females in the tank does help get the males to bring thier colors out. I have sunshine avail 2.5" and up.

well i have 2 different sunshines for sure.
one still has a yellowish tinge, the other is like crystal clear.

guessing yellowish one is a male that is just being a pussy, and will possibly color up when hes older.
and the clear one is a female?

What is your experience with sunshines?
ive heard it takes them up to a year to show color? any truth behind that statement?


maybe i should get some video footage of these guys that i am talking about?

I have a colored up male right now at 3". He is already on hold for someone, but I do see a subdom ready to be fully colored as soon the dominant one is gone.

gobluecichlids wrote:I have a colored up male right now at 3". He is already on hold for someone, but I do see a subdom ready to be fully colored as soon the dominant one is gone.

yeah my tank already has a full dominate, and a sub dominate, and sometimes my albino even shows signs of dominance towards the other 2.
i will trade you 2 females for 1 male

hormoned fish for sure. hate to say it but u may as well flush them. its happened to me before when ordering online. they wont ever get those colors back. its a very common occurance actually.. they hormone to find the males and ideally keep all the females for breeding purposes i assume. GL with your fish but i honestly think u may be better off starting over with a reputable breeder.

the hormoned dragonbloods I got were both males and females. I bred some in the yr. The females will never get the colors, but the males will grow em back. IF you add cyclopeeze to the fishfood, the colors will come out better.