Red Empress Information Needed

[bonez]

Hi,

Just wondering if someone could provide me with a little information about Red Empress?

I have two brought from my LFS because my wife wanted to add a little more colour to the tank. not knowing what type of red she were out there I ask the store and they said I would not find a completely red fish but pointed me in the direction of the red empress. After seeing a picture I decide to buy two the LFS said they were male and female and that they would colour up within a couple of weeks. It has now been three months and they still look like the image attached but one is now much bigger than the other and its strips are different. They are 1 - 1 1/2 inches in length so still quite small.

I heard that the male will only colour is there is a female in the tank is this true? and how can I determine if they are male or female? They do follow each other around the tank no stop.

Regards,
T

 

[Colin_T]

They don't normally colour up until they are 3-4inches long (about 6 months old). Until then they are pretty hard to sex. Males will usually grow faster than females but small weak males will get bullied by more dominant males, and this will cause the weaker fish to stay small and resemble a female.
Males will colour up regardless of if there is a female in the tank. My LFS has a tank of rift lake cichlids (all males) and they are all coloured up.

Male rosy barbs are red and do well in groups. Depending on what else is in the tank, you could add a group of rosy barbs and get some red colour that way. I would get 4 males and 2-4 females, (females are bronze or brown).
Male Glossolepis incisus (rainbowfish from New Guinea) are red, females are silver to bronze. They do well in hard alkaline water and grow to 4-5inches. They get along with peaceful rift lake cichlids. G. incisus do best in groups of 6 or more, try to keep them in prs (ie: 3prs).