Melanochromis auratus female with faded color

[COG Commando]

The title basically says it all. I have a female M. auratus who's color appears to have drastically faded to a silvery grey color. This change happened about 5 months ago and she hasn't gone back to her normal vividness. My nitrates are at normal level, <15ppm, and there isn't any severe fighting or aggression in my tank, (no torn fins or other visible damage). She is also one of the more dominant fish in my tank, but doesn't appear to have a false-male coloration, which is common among this species. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has seen one of their mbuna lose almost all of it's coloration, and what might be a probable cause of this.

Here's a horrible picture for some reference haha she's in the middle

 

[BC in SK]

She is also one of the more dominant fish in my tank, but doesn't appear to have a false-male coloration, which is common among this species. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has seen one of their mbuna lose almost all of it's coloration, and what might be a probable cause of this.

I would regard this as a false-male coloration, associated with dominance in the tank. This kind of coloration essentially resembles a male who is undergoing the transformation.

Female auratus will often have a 'not-quite' male coloration. Itcan be sort of 'muddy' and a little drab. I've seen it many times though IME, the females eventually took on even more male coloration. My current female now has fully male coloration.....but it varied considerably over the course of many months.

 

[malawidave]

I would regard this as a false-male coloration, associated with dominance in the tank. This kind of coloration essentially resembles a male who is undergoing the transformation.

Female auratus will often have a 'not-quite' male coloration. Itcan be sort of 'muddy' and a little drab. I've seen it many times though IME, the females eventually took on even more male coloration. My current female now has fully male coloration.....but it varied considerably over the course of many months.

I agree, I did a thread just about a week or two ago on this... if you look at the second picture in my thread mine looks very similar... a couple weeks from now she should be fully changed... it takes a little while