German Red starting to color up

[Steve]

Been noticing the last week or two that my little German Red in my male peacock tank is starting to show some colors Not a ton yet (he's still small at barely 2") but seeing some redish/orange in his body and shiny blue on his face.

[Ron]

Cool!

What is the guy at the very bottom center of the picture?

[Steve]

The very bottom one is an OB peacock. He's starting to get darker colors as well the past couple weeks. Still waiting for the red shoulder and lemon jake to start coloring.

[Ron]

The Lemon Jake should turn out really nice - that's one of three peacock types I've actually kept (others being German Red and Aulonocara stuartgranti "Cobue"). I've still got a few fry from my last group of lemon jakes and they are just a bit smaller than yours, plus an old female who's still around.

[RichE]

What are you feeding them, my German reds are dark and show no signs of lighting up and they are around the same size

[Ron]

NLS (growth when really small, 1mm now that they are larger) and a spirulina-based flake food.

[Steve]

Sounds like Ron and I feed them about the same. I feed mine NLS 1mm sinking pellets in the morning, then I feed them Omega One Kelp flakes in the evening which has spirulina and is 33% protein.

[four_by_ken]

Looks like the little guy is going to color up real good.

Can you take a picture of the whole tank?

[Steve]

Looks like the little guy is going to color up real good.

Can you take a picture of the whole tank?

Sorry Ken somehow I missed your post till just now. Yeah I'll take a whole tank pic in a bit for ya.

[Steve]

Here ya go Ken, it's a 55g 4ft tank with 10 all male peacocks and two hybrid syno cats. It's been up and running for about 3 months now. Billy from Cichlid Express helped me pick out/stock it after I finished building it and I'm really pleased with the stock and the colorations so far. The most aggresive one is the albino Red Diamond, but even his aggression isn't bad compared to the Mbuna tank across from it, so it's actually a pretty peaceful tank.
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[four_by_ken]

Very nice set up!

I am waiting on my peacocks to get some more color too.  Looks like we are at about the same time frame.  I need to take some pictures of mine soon.

[LoveTheFishies]

Nice background.  Did you buy it retail or make it yourself?

[Steve]

Thanks. Made everything myself. There's a build up post on it here http://michigancichlid.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=1370.0