Two fish Male?-not coloring up

[Dnky1234]

copdachromis azureus & Otopharynx lithobates-Not Coloering


I bought both of these fish about 4 months ago from Live Fish Direct. The C.A. is about 3.5 inches. The O.L. (Red Blazed) is about 2.5 inches. I attached pictures of both. Neither one appears to be coloring. LFD sent both as males. The CA is the dominant fish in the tank.

After cycling with clear ammonia and all parameters within normal limits, I added 9 medium sized fish to my 75 gallon tank. The tank despite negative levels must not have gotten thorougly cycled as I had 0.25 of ammonia shortly after adding fish. To make a long story short, I killed about 5 of the fish secondary to ammonia toxicity.

Anyways, all of the fish that survived, including the two I have a question about are doing great. I even added a few. Aulnocara Reubecens, "Sulfur Head Peacock", a Hap 44, pleco, syndontis and another CA that was shipped to me as a female. All of these fish are thriving and developing good color except for the smaller CA and the two fish I mentioned above. The smaller CA hides a lot- I think she is getting bullied by the male CA. I beleive I have all males now except for the smaller femal CA.

My tank parameters: Ammonia 0, Nitrates and Nitrites 0, Ph 8.3, DKH-Test indicates hard to very hard- I add cichlid rift lake salt and buffer, carbon once a month. I have a 75 gallon with 2 emperor 400s, air stone, tons of water circulation and caves. I feed them spirulina flake food, all purpose pellet-soak beforehand, and a cichild flake food more focused on carnivores. 1 10k 54 w/1 actinic 54 watt t-5. Water changes-over 100 percent per month.

Are these two males and if sow how long do they take to color up. Intitially my fish darknened as they weathered the cycling process but returned to their "normal" colors long ago. However, these two cichlids are not coloring up. I would guess they are about 8 to 10 months old. Dnky1234

[emartin]

Assuming they are both males, they aren't quite large enough to be showing full colors just yet.

If they are females that's the best they will look pretty much...

[Dnky1234]

Thanks for the reply. The Copadichromis is one of the biggest fish I have had that has not colored up by that size. I'll wait and continue to let my tank mature.

I lost mostly females, so I was thinking I would just make this an all male tank. As well the fry are somewhat of a hastle when I have had fish breed in the past. However, someone suggested that having females would help the males color up more. I have noticed that my fish are mostly in their "show colors" when they are begging for food in the morning and it might be beneficial to introduced females to the tank again. What do you think? I have never had an all male tank all though I have read a little about people that have kept an all male tank sucessfully.