"Red texas"

[phreeflow]

Never had these before. This is interesting…so do these start out orange/red, then turn blue, then possibly peel again back to red?

I’m guessing these are the same ones you got a while ago that looked orange when they first arrived.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Thanks. Cypher is so pretty that I'm honestly not sad at all that he is still blue, and I'll be quite happy if he stays that way. BUT I'm not sure he will...the orange around the corners of his mouth seems more pronounced, and there's a bit of orange around his eyes now too...plus, if his sibling in the other tank is anything to go by, they're late bloomers and hitting the peel mark around now. The other one is definitely leaning into the orange colour more significantly now.

I have noticed that too, that they seem to all be later bloomers atleast compared to other similar fish. Mine I have no hope that he'll peel anymore but then again he's pushing about a year and a half old at this point. My female flowerhorn peeled when she was as small as 1in tho, go figure lol.

But yeah most of the time it'll start out real slowly at first but very quickly progresses once it starts peeling. So don't be surprised if yours looks totally different by the end of the next month. Also don't be surprised if it only partially peels, it's quite common to have more that partially peel vs completely peel. Granted red Texas look great either way imo.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

Never had these before. This is interesting…so do these start out orange/red, then turn blue, then possibly peel again back to red?

I’m guessing these are the same ones you got a while ago that looked orange when they first arrived.

No, they should start out NOT orange and peel to that. These are the ones that arrived and were orange (which is why I bought them to begin with) but that reversed very quickly after they arrived so I think they were hormoned to get them that way for sale.

They're about a year and a half old now (late January was the 1-year mark for them arriving to me, and based on their size when I got them I figure they're about 1.5 years old now. Will see what happens!

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Never had these before. This is interesting…so do these start out orange/red, then turn blue, then possibly peel again back to red?

I’m guessing these are the same ones you got a while ago that looked orange when they first arrived.

They start out mostly green with blue pearling. The main base for these hybrids is either a Green Texas or Carpinitus cichlid which is then bred with any number of "redfish" such as Bloodparrot, Rose Queen, Midas or Red Devil cichlids, and then crossed back to the base specie's. Now all of these "redfish" have 1 thing in common which is the Fader Gene. All this fader gene does is remove some - all of the natural body pigment.

The way I like to think about it is to think about how ya paint a house, ya paint it white before adding a secondary color over top of it. All the fader gene does in this sense is it removes the top layer of color leaving behind only the bottom layer.

So when it comes to the Red Texas, it's base color is red and white while it gets the blue and green layers over top of the red and white, green over red and blue over white. Then when the fader gene becomes active it removes some - all of the blue and green color from the fish leaving behind only the red and white base colors.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

No, they should start out NOT orange and peel to that. These are the ones that arrived and were orange (which is why I bought them to begin with) but that reversed very quickly after they arrived so I think they were hormoned to get them that way for sale.

They're about a year and a half old now (late January was the 1-year mark for them arriving to me, and based on their size when I got them I figure they're about 1.5 years old now. Will see what happens!

From what I noticed while breeding my FH's was that they would go through periods of fading and regression, they just wouldn't settle on a color/pattern till they hit roughly a year old. As for whether or not it's the same for red texas I'm not certain but I would expect something to a similar effect.

But yeah sadly hormone treating fish is a very common practice with commercial breeders so it wouldn't surprise me any if that was the case. Ik it tends to be most commonly used on African cichlids since most tend to be late bloomers when it comes to color.

 

[phreeflow]

No, they should start out NOT orange and peel to that. These are the ones that arrived and were orange (which is why I bought them to begin with) but that reversed very quickly after they arrived so I think they were hormoned to get them that way for sale.

They're about a year and a half old now (late January was the 1-year mark for them arriving to me, and based on their size when I got them I figure they're about 1.5 years old now. Will see what happens!

This makes more sense

 

[phreeflow]

They start out mostly green with blue pearling. The main base for these hybrids is either a Green Texas or Carpinitus cichlid which is then bred with any number of "redfish" such as Bloodparrot, Rose Queen, Midas or Red Devil cichlids, and then crossed back to the base specie's. Now all of these "redfish" have 1 thing in common which is the Fader Gene. All this fader gene does is remove some - all of the natural body pigment.

The way I like to think about it is to think about how ya paint a house, ya paint it white before adding a secondary color over top of it. All the fader gene does in this sense is it removes the top layer of color leaving behind only the bottom layer.

So when it comes to the Red Texas, it's base color is red and white while it gets the blue and green layers over top of the red and white, green over red and blue over white. Then when the fader gene becomes active it removes some - all of the blue and green color from the fish leaving behind only the red and white base colors.

This is what I thought.

Yeah it sucks that they hormone fish. Big problem with discus

 

[Yamp1983]

I first want to say that is a beautiful fish whether it fades or not. My buddy and I bred a bp and a cyano Texas. I had this unfaded female that I name Jackie because she looked more like a Jack Dempsey with her torpedo shape, pesrls and all. Well I had her for 3 years and one day after she was moved to another tank she faded within a week. She went her whole life not showing a sign then flipped. So you never know when it comes to these fish.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

Interesting!

 

[Fishyboi1234]

This is Cypher. He's supposed to be a red texas. He doesn't seem to have gotten the memo, but given how gorgeous he is, I can't even be upset about it.

A little over a year ago I bought 6 two inch red texas babies from Thailand. I eventually sold off four and now have two left. Neither has peeled, and I'd long ago given up on that but really loved the way they looked anyway and kept them. But I noticed recently that both *might* actually peel eventually...if you look at the edges of his mouth, Cypher has a bit of orange. Never used to be, was black before. The other has the same orange around it's mouth too. So I guess maybe, could be late bloomers? I'll actually probably be sad if he peels at this point. He's stunning the way he is.

My phone takes really crappy fish pics, so video included too.

View attachment 1514027

View attachment 1514028

https://flic.kr/p/2ojHqnZ

Update? Been thinking of getting a RT and my lfs has a few for ok price