So I vented the fish....bad news...pics

[Bur01014]

So I did my best, netted the fish, wet my hands and flipped it over to check it out. My camera sucks and so do my pictures, but maybe they will help in determining whether the fish is male or female? Now for my REAL concern....i didn't keep the fish out of the water longer than 30 seconds at a time like the article said, but now observing the fish I think I may have damaged its eyes? I am so upset at myself, I shouldn't have even tried this. The fishes eyes look like they have eye contacts on them now. They seem to have a clear whitish layer on the outside of them, kind bubble layer over the eye. What did I do? Can I fix it? Wish I never would have tried this....

[Nobodynotime]

So I did my best, netted the fish, wet my hands and flipped it over to check it out. My camera sucks and so do my pictures, but maybe they will help in determining whether the fish is male or female? Now for my REAL concern....i didn't keep the fish out of the water longer than 30 seconds at a time like the article said, but now observing the fish I think I may have damaged its eyes? I am so upset at myself, I shouldn't have even tried this. The fishes eyes look like they have eye contacts on them now. They seem to have a clear whitish layer on the outside of them, kind bubble layer over the eye. What did I do? Can I fix it? Wish I never would have tried this....

My old bala shark jumped out of thank and was out for a while (like 5min because he was caught behind shelving) and had the same effect. It went away after a while and from what I could tell his eye sight hadn't suffered from it. Hopefully this is the same with yours!

[Sharon]

The same happened to my daughter's bala, and it cleared as well...:ssmile:

[Lady Hobbs]

Look at the second picture. Looks as your were pushing that net to his eyes.

Moving posts of this fish to the central american cichlid section.

[Demjor19]

looks like an african to me?

[Bur01014]

Moved to Central and North American Cichlid forum??? Its a peacock....african malawi fish....anyways, the fishes eyes are clearing up already, so I think it will be okay!

[Lady Hobbs]

oops. Thought it was a convict. Moving again.

[Sarkazmo]

Yeah, his eyes should clear. Just keep an eye on him for fungal infections so that you're able to treat right away if there's an issue.

Sark

[Bur01014]

So any ideas or interpretations from my terrible venting picks....looking at it personally, I still don't know whether male or female....I guess we will see if she holds....probably be a nice strain besides :)

[thatcichlidguy]

I'll venture to say it's 99% certain a female. Luckily with peacocks adults don't normally require venting though young males or sometimes sub-dominant males look girly. Generally if it has color it's male , if it looks blah it's female . OB peacocks are a different story since both sexes display good color .

To answer your other question about the fry, their toast. Once they are spit the female is done with them and might eat them herself. Basicly they are fair game for whoever's hungry. I've only been able to raise peacock fry successfully by stripping the females around the third week of holding and raising the fry seperately. They can be stripped much earlier(during the first week) but that requires an egg tumbler, and I'm a little too lazy for that. Besides, momma does a fine job herself.

[Lab_Rat]

If I had to guess from the pics, maybe female, but it's really hard to tell with as blurry as they are. Sorry to hear about the eye irritation, hopefully they'll heal up quickly with very clean water. If it is a female, with her size once she settles in you should see spawning behavior soon.

[Bur01014]

Well, with all those male peacocks and this one female...if she is female, we should be seeing spawning behavior very soon....guess we'll wait to see if she is holding....

[Bur01014]

so if they do spawn with this fish....obviously, hybrids will result....will half the fry be german red and half something else? Or will each fry have mixed colors....?

[Lab_Rat]

You would have mixed genes. Hopefully it's not a lone female in with a bunch of males...if so, have a backup plan since they're likely to fight over her or harass her to death.