Chilotilapia rhoadesii

[danielratti]

Ok so I have a question about these fish. Just with in the last month I bought some of these off a guy locally who said he was just going to sell us males at the store I told him either will work. He brought in 16 or so fish around a inch showing no color what so ever. No they are around 1.5 to 2 inches and some are fully colored in and others are showing a lot of color. So what I am asking is about what size do these fish really start to turn color. I don't think they were hormoned but I guess you can never know anymore. Ive see them in a store before but they were little like this but seemed to be hormoned since one did have what looked to be eggs in its mouth.

[Regalblue]

I was just checking some out last night at a LFS.  They were 2.5" or So&  all( 6) were showing color.

[GrizzlysDad]

IMHO, this is HIGHLY suspicious regarding coloration at that small of a size.  Seeing that an adult C. rhoadesii can get 8" and over, it's unlikely they would show much, if any color, at even 2".
It has been over 10yrs since I kept this species and my group started with a dozen 2" colorless fish. After growing to 5" I finally got a male that showed some color, but not fully colored.
Once the group was mature and breeding, I never, ever had more than one male show color.

[danielratti]

I dunno they came in colorless within the past month they have got a ton of color.

I've seen pictures of them big but never in person. I guess the pictures do not do the fish justice.

[Marty]

I had some that showed decent color at 2.5".  My efforts to grow them up were thwarted by not one, but two airlines coming loose from the filters, causing the tank to crash.  I picked them up from the Oyers.

[GrizzlysDad]

The group I had many years ago were wild caught, which could have had an effect on them showing little color until larger size...and having only one male colored at a time, which is typical wild behavior for the species.

[four_by_ken]

The one that I have, I got about 3 months ago... grew some and is about 2" now.  No color at all. Damn.

[Ron]

The one that I have, I got about 3 months ago... grew some and is about 2" now.  No color at all. Damn.

Don't give up yet. If by 3" there's no color in the lips, it's most likely a female.

[four_by_ken]

The one that I have, I got about 3 months ago... grew some and is about 2" now.  No color at all. Damn.

Don't give up yet. If by 3" there's no color in the lips, it's most likely a female.

Just looked again... about 2"... no blue at all.  So, its got a little time.   

[danielratti]

There is still hope. you could also have a fish in the tank stressing it out so it woun't show color for a little longer. you can always vet it when it gets a bit bigger.

[runawaypencil]

I have a group of 10 that took about the 2inch mark to start but once they hit 3inchs 2-3 males really fired up.