How to see breeding dress more?

[Deadeye]

So my convict female goes from grey to white, black, blue, yellow, and orange when breeding. Is there any way, without stimulating breeding, that those colors can show more often? I assume there really isn’t, as naturally it would be making itself more of a visible target, which is the opposite of what it wants daily.

 

[C. Breeze]

In general If you cool them down a couple degrees you can kind of prolong that prespawn courtship/conditioning phase, and the colors that come with it. But convicts can/might/ will spawn at 70 so even cooling them down slightly isn’t foolproof. Being more specific 76 and really 77 and up seems to be the preferred spawning temperature almost across the board for Central Americans and at 74/5 they start getting frisky and looking good.

 

[duanes]

Breeding dress has always been well worth waiting for, for me. Even if it only comes once per year.
It is also the reason I never keep single individual species together, or even community cichlid tanks ( always kept a single pair or trio per 6 ft tank) because when not breeding, most can be dull.
Examples.

Normal Nosferatu bartoni color above, breeding dress below.


Normal Nosferatu labridens(sp) above, spawning below


Normal color female haitienus above
same female fry raising below



Normal female festae above
Same female inbreeding color below

 

[Deadeye]

In general If you cool them down a couple degrees you can kind of prolong that prespawn courtship/conditioning phase, and the colors that come with it. But convicts can/might/ will spawn at 70 so even cooling them down slightly isn’t foolproof. Being more specific 76 and really 77 and up seems to be the preferred spawning temperature almost across the board for Central Americans and at 74/5 they start getting frisky and looking good.

The tank already runs at 74, I took out the heather as it was overheating. Weird thing is that the convict started laying much less frequently after that.