Need help, is it hormoned?

[Feeder Fish]

Yeah I wish I had space for another tank to quarantine, unfortunately I share a room with my gf and she'd kill me.

 

[Jay88]

this is why you should always quarantine new fish before adding them to your community tank.

I still can't follow this step due to only having one tank setup. But ziggy is right.

 

[paulW]

A lot of fish especially from Asia that are imported here are fed color enhancing foods which contain hormones that will even make a female peacock display full male colors at 1-2 inch length. The colors on this fish are really vibrant for its age and it seems like its probably fed hormones but I'm not sure 100%, it's my first peacock tank so I'm wondering if other owners experience this color at its size.

It's possible for a male peacock to color up naturally as small as an inch. I've seen it a few times. It's not very common though.
Some guys are just naturally quicker to color. But in general, in a tank that size (unless the tank is huge), there will only be one male in the group that brightly colored. Maybe two.
If you go to the LFS and they have a tank of 20 males that are all small and colored up beyond "normal", be suspicious.

Another thing you can do is wait a bit. I did this with some Red Empress that I bought. They come into the store hormoned.
After a few weeks, the ones that have not sold will fade a bit. On the real males, you will see faint signs of beginning to color up.
It takes experience, but you can guess which ones are males among the faded ones. I got some really nice real males this way.
However, I don't intend to breed them. If you intend to breed fish, obviously, you should avoid the hormoned fish, as the hormones might make the females sterile and they could even make the males less fertile (Just look at what happens to humans when they take too much testosterone supplements, their gonads shrink).

It's kind of a bummer when you buy a nicely colored hormoned fish and they turn into female coloration about 3 weeks later though.
I would just watch this guy, see if his color sticks.. If you paid extra for to get a male, maybe the store will let you exchange. Our stores sell them unsexed, so it's "buyer beware"

 

[paulW]

Yeah I wish I had space for another tank to quarantine, unfortunately I share a room with my gf and she'd kill me.

Try to slip in a 20 gallon or something.. That would let you quarantine one peacock at a time.
Do you have room under your stand?

I've learned the hard way too many times.. ALWAYS QUARANTINE. No exceptions now.
If I can't quarantine, I don't buy the fish.
Sure, the wife gets mad when I drag out another tank for quarantine, but it's necessary, and it only needs
to be up maybe 2-3 weeks.