Color Changing Convicts?

[Suriliel]

My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but I've been looking for awhile and can't find anything of the sort. I have 2 Convict Cichlids, I believe one's female and one's male. The female had a yellow tail and fins when I got her, but now has irridescent rainbow colored fins and tail. Is this normal? If so, what causes the change? The male I recently got for her has done the same thing. I've noticed it's more pronounced when they're chasing other fish away, but this might just be because they stick out their fins to they're more noticable. Any speculation on this would be great It's not a concern for health, they're both wonderfully happy fishes, I'm just curious Also, the female has dug a big hole in the corner of the tank, but she's still quite small (just over an inch), so she can't be trying to breed yet can she? Maybe she's just practising? Heh.

 

[Suriliel]

Nobody knows? Any ideas even? Again they're happy and not sick or anything, I'm just curious why their fins are changing colors all of a sudden. Any speculation would be appreciated

 

[annka5]

I know nothing about convicts, so this is speculation (maybe better trying in the cichlids section?) so the following is generalised speculation which you may or may not want to ignore!
Plenty of fish will display different colour as they mature, and many will have brighter colours when they are feeling good, or breeding. Some will develop heightened colour when they're being aggressive (look how big and scary i am!!) or with other moods (I keep discus, their stress bars appear and disappear according to their mood).
Re breeding, I recently bought a pair of rams, and the male keeps digging out little craters (actually, big creators compared to the size of the fish. When I posted on here, suggestion was that they are too young to breed (which was what I thought too) and they were just digging about the place.

 

[Suriliel]

Hmm yea I think they might change colors when they're being aggressive.. I notice it more when they're chasing fishes out of the plants or eating so that makes sense. It's really pretty anyways

I think they're definitely too small to be breeding.. it's silly to watch them digging holes though, the rocks in the tank are kind of big so they move one at a time and sometimes it doesn't even fit in their mouth, so it's cute to watch them My lobster seems to have the opposite desire, he builds big piles of rocks in random places, and in his homes.. fish are so funny sometimes