Mystery - colorful female aulonocara?

[RD.]

LOL, I honestly can't conclude anything from reading any of this, other than;

1. colored up male Aulonocara that have been in a tank for 6+ months, do not suddenly convert to fully colored females.

2. female Aulonocara that hold eggs in their mouth for approx. 4 days, will never have those eggs "dry up" and go POOF, like a cloud of smoke.

I have seen a lot of odd things in fish tanks over the years, including gravid female clown loaches that mouth a small pebble for days on end, but I have never seen or heard of anything like what you described, other than 2 male cichlids taking part in pseudo spawning. If you prefer to believe something else is happening, make sure to fully document it on video. I would love to see the offspring from this pairing.

 

[BIG-G]

Can I ask what you are feeding? Is it possible that it took a piece of food without you seeing and the “smoke” was just a pellet or food item being chewed up and spat out?

 

[ECW]

Smoking fish? WTH?

 

[Niki_up]

I’ve seen my molly fish drop a Duce in the tank and it looked like a cloud of smoke....almost like fish diarrhea

 

[BIG-G]

I’ve seen my molly fish drop a Duce in the tank and it looked like a cloud of smoke....almost like fish diarrhea

 

[Longmayitreign]

It’s not on any roids by chance? Cause there are some foods that have hormones in them and make females look male.

 

[Adam GR]

Can I ask what you are feeding? Is it possible that it took a piece of food without you seeing and the “smoke” was just a pellet or food item being chewed up and spat out?

Well I feed all variety of food, but at this time it was flakes. And I am sure that she didnt eat before "cloud of smoke" appear. Honestly - eureka looked on the food, produce a "cloud " and get on food right after. I must add that I have few holding females before and it is noticeable when there is something in mouth. You can see that fish all the time try to align eggs in mouth and constantly moving jaw. This was also the case with this eureka..

 

[Adam GR]

Smoking fish? WTH?

Well, sorry I am not a native english speaker and maybe word "smoke" wasnt too accurate and looks like it causeing laugh/confusion... will "smear in water" be any better??

 

[Adam GR]

LOL, I honestly can't conclude anything from reading any of this, other than;

1. colored up male Aulonocara that have been in a tank for 6+ months, do not suddenly convert to fully colored females.

2. female Aulonocara that hold eggs in their mouth for approx. 4 days, will never have those eggs "dry up" and go POOF, like a cloud of smoke.

I have seen a lot of odd things in fish tanks over the years, including gravid female clown loaches that mouth a small pebble for days on end, but I have never seen or heard of anything like what you described, other than 2 male cichlids taking part in pseudo spawning. If you prefer to believe something else is happening, make sure to fully document it on video. I would love to see the offspring from this pairing.

1 this Eureka is not fully colored up. There is almost none blue/purple. It looks like 5months ago, when it fade out after hormones (it was bright as sun when ge it home - lots of purple) - what Im trying to say is - it doesnt look like this fish is gaining any more color
2 did you ever actually see the moment when holding female decide to eat the eggs?? You sure nothing is relesed from those eggs??
3 only in this thread there is a guy saying that he also have a male looking OB which is a female (i am awere that OB females can have a bit o color), but without looking at the fish you know that this guy cant sex his fish..
Here is a few pic from a week ago

 

[RD.]

Honestly I'm having a difficult time following your timeframe, and the events that followed.

1. Aulonocara that are fully coclored, can color down to a sub dominant, female coloration, when under stress. This is very common within this genus. I'm not sure if this is what you are seeing, or not. It's what I'm seeing.

2. I have never seen what you describe, and I have bred my fair share of African cichlids over many years.

3. The most accurate way to sex a fish, any fish, is to vent it.

Comparing OB peacocks, a mbuna crossed hybrid morph, to a pure Aulonocara jacobfreibergi makes zero sense. I have owned both. The former was created with a mbuna cross, the most likely choice was from a monomorphic OB species of mbuna, where the females would also have color. Some, a lot more than others. Then add in many years of line breeding for even more color, as well as different mbuna used in the crossing (which is exactly why OB's can look and act so differently) and there's no comparing that, to identifying a dull brownish, pure female Aulonocara.

Besides all of that, as a female, the fins look completely wrong. Too elongated and pointed to be female.