How long does a red empress take to color up?

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I have a trio, one male and two females. How long does a red empress take to color up? He chases them all over. no spawning though. He is grayish wioth red overtone all over his body and fins! But no blue head and no red dominance! :(

thanks,
 
Hi,

I believe your male should start to color out at about 2 to 3 inches in length. I too have a small Red Empress that's about 1 1/2 inches long and I have yet to determine it's sex, it does show some faint signs of blue around the eyes so it may be a male, time will tell. If your starting to see the red coloration in his body then it probably won't be too long before you start to see a nice change.



HTH
 
I have a red empress which is about 2 1/2" and just has a bit of red in the fins. Still haven't seen any red/blue in the body.

I have asked this question befor eand have got a bunch of different answers,Some take a few months and some can take a year or more to get coloring.

If your male hasn't colored up yet how do you know you have 2females and a male?
 
Guess I will be able to tell you as soon as they change color.
My female Red Empress has "spit out" 23 tiny young ones 4 days ago.
I removed mom after 2 days so now they have the 30 completely to their own.(you can hardly see them against the sandy substrate)
I think it’ll take 3 or 4 months before the males change color.
Yours will be already colored by that time I guess. ;)

Jimmy
 
Mine is easily 4 inch long. He is a male. because of the chase and the red in between the gray. I thought he should be fully covered by now. I am afraid that he was pumped with hormones when I bought it. It may have ruined his colors. :(
 
He must be at least something like 2 years old by now.
He should be completely colored
Your water-conditions are OK I assume?
Your tank wouldn’t be overcrowded?
The size of the tank is appropriate ?
He is not being harassed too much by other fish(if there are any) in the tank? If so, he could behave like a subdominant male if that happens to be the case.
All these topics (or a combination) could lead to some sort of stress which makes him lose his color.
I’m not questioning your knowledge about cichlids but just incase, are we talking about the same Red Empress? Protomelas taeniolatus.
Before I bought mine, 5 weeks ago, I did some research and what I’ve read about them, they shouldn’t be that much of a chaser. They even try to avoid any confrontation with others, as much as they can, and that is exactly what I see in my tank (till now). When he gets fed up with other fish irritating him, he just open his mouth and they’re gone. It’s the only “non mbuna” in my mbuna tank because of their similar dietary needs. They are considered to be easy, peaceful and non territorial.(except during spawning, they need some space of their own)
I’m not sure any of this will bring back the colors of your Empress, but perhaps you could look at some of the points I’ve mentioned.

Jimmy
 
yes it is Protomelas taeniolatus. the tank is 133G and has 20 fish almost all all thre einchers. So it is understock.

He chases his females but does not hurt them. He is one of the top dogs in the tank. He is peaceful and non-territorial as haps are.

Thanks for the info that at 2 years old he would be full colored. He was pumped with hormones when I bought him and he was not full red. Perhaps that's his final colors :(. I asked PAM and she said that the final color is not hut\rt by hormones. though they do become sterile.

Thanks guys,
 
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