Auloncara Male Holding???

[sailorsam1999]

Hey everyone,

I picked up this fish from a guy on craigslist who told me it was a "Eureka Red" male. I've kept these guys for a while now so when I got this fish I went "Yup, that's a male" in my head. I'm not sure that its a Eureka Red, probably isn't but LOOK AT THE COLOR! Anyways I'm going to vent this fish later in the week, I was just wondering if anyone has seen anything like this or has any idea of if its a weird male or if its just a super colored up female.

 

[Milingu]

By the shape of the fins I would say female.

 

[sailorsam1999]

By the shape of the fins I would say female.

I completely agree, have you seen this type of coloring on a female though?

 

[Milingu]

Not with Aulonocara. But with several Mbuna. It happens mostly with older females while holding.
Your female could be good breeding material if it passes on that trait.

 

[sailorsam1999]

Not with Aulonocara. But with several Mbuna. It happens mostly with older females while holding.
Your female could be good breeding material if it passes on that trait.

My thoughts exactly haha!

 

[BigBeardDaHuZi]

Not with Aulonocara. But with several Mbuna. It happens mostly with older females while holding.
Your female could be good breeding material if it passes on that trait.

Or it's had hormones in its youth. I had three "males" from an assorted tank, all very brightly colored. Apparently, they had been doped. As the hormones wore off, two of them turned drab gray, but one of them kept a fair bit of red. The red one gave me hope, but a couple months later it was holding too. I think the hormones had just permanently messed it up.

 

[RD.]

Agreed, I would suspect that this fish has been juiced.