Albino Pelvicachromis pulcher

This past week I got an albino Pelvicachromis pulcher male donated by someone. She had planned to go on a vacation to Italy and there was no one who was willing to take care of her fish. She had him with some goldfish. She assumed that he was a goldfish as well. So far her knowledge about fish. The goldfish have died at her place. And this fellar was hiding in the corner of the tank.
Although, he's an albino, his eyes can turn dark from what I've noticed.But he's good looking fellar. I'll get him an albino female in two weeks. For I know a store which sells those albinos. He's now in a bigger tank on my balcony enjoying the fresh air and sun during the day.
Just made some pictures but had to put him in a smaller container to take pictures for he hides a lot. Which is normal for such a cichlid of course.
I call him Sammy...

As you can see, his eyes are almost black in two of these pics. But the picture from the top does show his red eyes. I've seen how he changes his eye color.

He's lovely. I'm very glad they found you.

I’ve never seen an albino Kribensis . I know , I know , it’s Pelvicachromis pulcher but I’ve always referred to them generically as “kruhbinz” . That’s how we pronounced it . One of my very favorite dwarf cichlids . I do hope you do find him a mate .

Naughts said:

He's lovely. I'm very glad they found you.

Click to expand...

The former owner was lucky that I had some extra tanks...

Back in the fold said:

I’ve never seen an albino Kribensis . I know , I know , it’s Pelvicachromis pulcher but I’ve always referred to them generically as “kruhbinz” . That’s how we pronounced it . One of my very favorite dwarf cichlids . I do hope you do find him a mate .

Click to expand...

Tbh, even I still call them kribensis...

How big and how old is he?

I bred some that were sold to me as albino P subocellatus, probably 20 years ago. Luckily, over half the fry had regular colouration, so I could see they were pulcher. I got rid of the albinos in an auction and kept pairs of the regular ones for a while, but compared to other pulcher around, they were no beauties. It wasn't a nice colour morph, once it had colour.

Nice fish though, other than the name confusion (Pelvicachromis kribensis is a different species, but importers 70 years ago made a mistake). It's one of my favourite aquarium fish, not far behind the real krib.

gwand said:

How big and how old is he?

Click to expand...

About 4 inches.

GaryE said:

I bred some that were sold to me as albino P subocellatus, probably 20 years ago. Luckily, over half the fry had regular colouration, so I could see they were pulcher. I got rid of the albinos in an auction and kept pairs of the regular ones for a while, but compared to other pulcher around, they were no beauties. It wasn't a nice colour morph, once it had colour.

Nice fish though, other than the name confusion (Pelvicachromis kribensis is a different species, but importers 70 years ago made a mistake). It's one of my favourite aquarium fish, not far behind the real krib.

Click to expand...

Usually, I would go for the wild colors. But in some way I just don't mind this being an albino.

Some new pics...