Peacock Weirdness

[Flashgordon]

I bought ( I thought) one male and 3 female A Baenschi from St George about 18 months ago. the male has turned into a big gorgeously coloured fish and the three females stayed about the same size as each other, probably 75% of the size of the male. Time passed, a few babies truned up in the tank, one survived and also turned into a big colourful male.

Then two weeks ago I broke down their tank, sold off a bunch of other fish and installed them in another tank in the well lit family room. As there were only 4 fish in a 5 ft x 2 ft x 1.5 tank, they were pretty quiet and introverted.

Last weekend I added about 20 rainbows to add a bit more life to the tank and the peacocks were instantly transformed, out and about and being very active immediately.

Now here is the weirdness. Almost immediately, two of the fish I thought were males started to show yellow colour, not as bright as the male but drab and distinct yellow nonetheless. Bugger, I thought, males after all this time - blinking cross dressers!!

Now to compound the weirdness, I looked at one of those supposed males last night and he/she now has a mouthful, and looks as brown and as drab as a female peacock ever looks. The other still shows a hint of yellow if seem under the right light but otherwise still looks like a female.

Both these fish have seemed to be females for the entire 18 months and were outstripped in size very quickly by the baby male, yet at least one of them is colouring like a male (or at least NOT like a female)

So, do I have two transvestite peacocks here or what? I confess to being very confused.