Male Red Peacock? Or Female? Hmm..

[Alex422]

So I went to a fish store today and bought what I thought (and they did too) were 3 female Red Peacocks for my male I currently have. "It" has egg spots and it seems to have more yellow and the egg-looking things on the dosal fin seem to be a little more pronounced. I noticed the store had quite a few red peacocks in about a 125gallon. I just bought him tonight so maybe he has to get used to my tank. For all I know he could have grown up with all the other fish in there so maybe his colors never had a chance to develop.

Please help me decide. I don't want to put my male in with them if the new guy is a male too.

Fish on bottom:

Sorry for the glare on this one:

 

[mike dunagan]

How long has been since it was at the store, if it is showing color it is female.

 

[NotoriousSway]

Looks like a female to me, I have some proven females that look just like this but I have been fooled before. If you think it might be a male give it two weeks with the females and it should color up if its a male. BTW what size is it?

 

[Alex422]

I vented, theyre all females. The tank is a 29 and they are all about 4 inches

 

[yipp-e]

female peacocks dont get colour. No more then that anyway. But you already kow so

 

[cichlidgirl]

Female peacocks tend to look like your fish. It is possiable to have a female with some eggspots, they are usually fewer of them and they tend to be rather washed out colorwise compared to the males eggspots. Might be smaller eggspots too (on a female). Fully colored males would have more color than the fish in your pics. My experience is that even sub dominant males have a bit more color than yours so i think your right about it being female. After a week or so with the females if it is a male it will be showing off for them, flaring fins and shaking his body real fast for the females, chasing them too. If you see it doing anything that says :" Hey, look at me" !! then its a male.

 

[Alex422]

Im really wanting some babies. Thats a pretty fish for a female peacock.

 

[mike dunagan]

How big is it? Before we say males have more color, we need to know size. Often pictures misrepresent size. I have males that are fairly large that do not show color yet. Tank mates make a difference. I had a group that never showed color because of a large agressive male. After removing them, a few days after that they began to show full color. So we need some more information

 

[Alex422]

They are all about 4 inches long. I have a picture on the Breeding Fourm but I'll go ahead and repost it on here.

 

[mike dunagan]

How many definite males are in the tank? Have you considered venting?