Newbie Mystery Picture

[maxclocker]

Hello all you Cich people!

i am new to the hobby and was given the fish in the picture. They are aprox. 2" in length. Please excuse the poor picture. These guys are always on the go, and hard to shoot (if I'm good, Santa may bring me a digital SLR!). Can anyone identify the fish? From the pictures I've seen online, I'm guessing either an Auloncara (such as a Nyassae or Fire Fish). Possiblly even a Albino Taiwan Reef Steveni? (I've seen a few with the same color and non-albino eyes)

Thanx in advance for any help. What a great hobby ...

Mark

What is this little hyper dude?

[Jason S]

They are Aulonocara. Which species/variant you may never know for sure. Most the "firefish" type Aulonocara are albinos...these are not. Not any type of Protomelas...those have a cross-hatched pattern of black on a silver background.

[bulldogg7]

Regular strawberry peacocks, oligomelanics, almost albino. Sometimes called firefish, but not as RED. Either way they're hybrids so no real species name, but pretty popular and accepted now, I love mine.
here's a male of that same strain colored up

adult female


My male started coloring at around 3", the females grow a bit slower once that get that size but the males seem to keep growing till around 5 inches before they slow down.