[davocean]

LOTS of misinformation on this post, from lumping all petco's/petco fish and designers into such a generalized statement as if they are all the same or inevitable same outcome, to comparing designers to dye injected fish, totally different.

All fish should be quarantined and assumed carrying disease and observed before intro to display, regardless of where they come from, petco is not a death sentence, and not all petco's are the same just as not all designer breeders are the same either.

Dyed fish have been physically manually altered, a designer originally came from the wild, a natural occurance similar to albino fish/reptiles, and selectively bred, and when done responsibly causes no harm to the fish.

As for age, it's anyone's guess from pics, no one could say for sure.

As for pairing behavior vs spawning behavior, yes this looks different, I'm looking at my picasso pair that are very obviously showing signs of what will be their first spawn, just frisky playfulness that can sometimes be confused w/ aggression as they can be very rambunctious, and you will see them aggressively cleaning a surface in preparation for laying eggs, I'm sure just by my observations I'll be seeing eggs w/in a week.