Please ID my Petsmart flower horn...AKA $6 red devil

[Tripplebeards]

I haven't been on here in years and miss this site. Well I got rid of my piranhas and was going to get festaes again but after the pain of rasing the last two groups over the last several years only to have the dominant male kill everyone in the tank I wanted to try some new cichlids. I ordered a half dozen synspilums off eBay, picked up a male green terror, and found this little guy at Petsmart the other day. I procrastinated on it for a week knowing they have A bad temper but when I went in yesterday and saw his tank marked "red Texas cichlid" $6 I caved. It's only a 1" to maybe a 1 1/2" at most and showing great colors. There are bright blue flakes on it and blue around all the flowers. It's throat is a nice bright red. Will it fade in time or get brighter? Is a male or female and what kind of flower horn is it?

 

[pondperch]

Nice color for a 6$ fish. Good pick up.

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

I've seen some of these get real nice, maybe it'll take a fancy to one of your syns.

 

[that_fish_Guy]

Looks like a little male to me. You'll just have to wait to see how he turns out.

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[Tripplebeards]

It has a lot of color for a small fish compaired to the other Petsmart flower horns in the sticky posts.(some of them just look like various crosses of something else)Hoping I got lucky and hit the lottery. It was the only one they had. The flower on its head is what got me. I'm guessing it's a ZZ being it has red eyes? I've been having fun and googling images of flowerhorns the last couple of days and learning what to expect and not to expect from a Petsmart quality flowerhorns and not to expect a large KOK if it's a male. It's going to be exciting to watch the little experiment grow.

 

[Fish on Fire]

It is a nice little zz, still too small to tell the gender accurately. Just grow him out and enjoy, the colors should improve over time if raised well with good food, low stress, and great water quality. My favorite thing about fh is that you never really know what they might grow up to look like. For all you know, it could have some fader blood in it and fade to a bright orange/red at some point, haha.

 

[Tripplebeards]

Whoops, they had it listed as a red Texas not devil. I'll post pics as he gets older

 

[DIRTY REDD]

Nice little start to him...beef him or her up and see what comes of it...can't beat a $6 FH

 

[Tripplebeards]

Hes a little pale from battling with hex but after day four of treatment he's starting to eat really small particles of food. Is it a male and what strain of ZZ is it?

 

[Lusus_Naturae]

Nice little guy. Here's a before and after of one of my Petsmart finds. Your looks better than mine did when he was little.
The last photo was taken 7/12/2012.