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they're pretty much look the same, just bigger.

the only way I can tell which is a male, is to see which ones are displaying to each other in the tank. It's pretty easy to see the dominant male are any one time. If I really wanted to put work into them, I could start separating them out into separate tanks, as I pull out all the males. That's something I might try with the next batch.
 
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I started with 12 wild ones, ended up with some deaths since I had too many of them together. In the end, I started figuring out who was who, and by the time I had them narrowed down to 3M/3F, the last 2 males died. They don't outright fight each other, like African cichlids, but instead intimidate each other with displays and dominance. Once a fish is dominated, he/she wont swim out to feed anymore, until the dominator is removed.

Thus, males will dominate all other males until there is only 1 left. Females if given enough space will spread out and tolerate each other.

Thus, if I were you... Start with 4-6 and let them pair up, then remove the pair that's taking up all the space in the tank. once they are separated out, the next pair will form up, and so on. You would have to give each pair their own tank, or sell them back out.

Yes, I sold all the little guys last spring. The male carries eggs every 6th week, but right now, that's too frequent, and he gets hungry before the fry develop, which is at ~24 days of incubation. That gives him only 3-4 weeks to feed and fatten up in between. I would really need to separate the female, to stop her from breeding with him for an extra couple of weeks, so the male has enough fat reserves to fast for 24 days, while hes mouth brooding. This month, I'm trying egg tumbling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-NRN5FmJGs
 
Last edited:

ecvernon

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This is a great thread. I bought 2 from my local fish store and I had them about 2 months. Yesterday the father started to carry eggs.i am not ready to try to raise them maybe ill have a setup later

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