Sexing Green Terror

[dave76]

At what size can you tell the sex of a GT? My juvenile is about 3 inches long

[optix]

Just a tad bit early but so far its looking like a female. males tend to have iridescent greenish blue highlights to them. And generally longer fin extension's. If it starts growing a nice hump on its forehead you can be sure its a male, but so far I'd say female from looking at that pic.

[dave76]

not the best picture and it doesnt show off her colors that well, but thank you for your information, this is the first time I have ever kept a cichlid.

edit, the colors on the face and fins are a irredecent blue, they just dont translate that well on the photo.

[DarthV]

Here's my young GT, I had thought it was a female, but now I'm noticing a slight hump and the dorsal and anal fins seem to be getting longer and less rounded.

And as you can see that the fins and facial colors are definitely irredescent!

http://executor.hil.unb.ca//craig/images/fish/GT/GT021.jpg

[jimbo]

I thought I've seen everything, guess i have to reconsider that.
Beautiful fish.....Great picture.

Jimmy

[dave76]

mine has the exact same coloration to the tips on the dorsal being gold to the tail as well, His colors arent that noticeable because of my lack of a digital camera. I had to use my camcorder and then capture from a snappy. I also took the pic during the day which prolly wasnt good for the colors either



http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/d_odaniel/vwp?.dir=/My+Photos&.dnm=greenie+6.jpg&.src=ph&.view=t&.hires=t

You can see his colors a little better in this one

[DarthV]

I took about 60 pics of the fish last night and only 2 or 3 of them were worth keeping. I think I've taken about 400 pics in total so far and I have about 20 ones that I think were decent enough to put on the 'net. I'm amazed at how much color has started showing up on the fish in the last few days. I've started to switch around the diet... I've added some raw frozen shrimp and spirulina pellets to the mix and I think that's why the color has been showing so much. I've had the GT for about 2 weeks now (2 weeks as of this afternoon) and I've already noticed that it has grown about 1/2" and is a lot more active. I'm hoping it is a male just for colration, but a female would be nice since it will be smaller.

[dave76]

I have had mine about 2 weeks as well I feed him a mix of cichlid pellets, shrimp pellets, flake, and have given him ghost shrimp as feeders, he also seems to like the algae wafers I feed to my algae eaters, He did not like peas doesnt seem to pay attention to any food that floats like baby shrimp or krill. He seems as though he could take or leave blood worms, I use the tetradelica, the ones that come in packs. should I try the frozen ones? any other feeding suggestions or methods?

[DarthV]

That pretty much sounds like mine. Hva eyou tried skipping a day of feeding and then trying those foods again?

[dave76]

I have not tried that, what are spirulina pellets? are they some form of algae, and how do you take your pics, all the lights off except tank I know that but what do you use a digital camera?

[DarthV]

Spirulina is an algae...you buy it in flake or pellet/stick form. I'm planning on doing a tank up with african mbunas, so I picked up a can of the Nutrafin spirulina. I figured what the hell, a varied diet should be a good idea and the fish liked them :)

I'm using a Nikon Coolpix 995 that I've borrowed from work. I've taken pics with and without flash and I like the ones taken without a lot better. I have to get a nice tripod so I can try taking longer exposure and longer f-stops.

[AikidoGuy]

Heres a fish I gave to Mojo early this year. I know the sex of it and wanted to see what others thought, by picture alone. Keep in mind this picture was taken just hours after the fish had been through a 2 hour ride from my home to Mojos. This however, is and Untouched photo.

fish is 6" in this picture

http://www.aquamojo.com/terror/Green%20Terror%203b.jpg

[dave76]

from what I read I would guess that it is a male.

[optix]

Female

[AikidoGuy]

and no cheating if you already know :p

[optix]

I like this guessing game :p even though im probably wrong im gonna stick with my instincts and from what I can see of the markings I'd say female, but the shape of the head has me thinking male because I could easily see a hump start to form there. Ahhh im gonna stick with saying female just because of the coloration on the markings. lol we should do this more often

[CoCoFiShY]

AikidoGuy, your GT is a male

100% sure!!!!!!

[Deb2]

I'll say male. Dorsal fin is starting to trail, orange is wider on tail and fins, nuchal hump is forming. Color isn't too bright, but the fish is stressed after that ride.

[optix]

Deb2 convinced me with the hump forming I can't help but keep coming back and looking at that and I have to say its gonna be a male. Even going against my instincts I'd say that hump is about to form and I have to say its gonna be a male.

[ChilDawg]

AikidoGuy won't let me play... :( (I already know, so I won't spoil it as this seems like fun!) :)

[AikidoGuy]

ok now what makes everyone say what they did. why is it male or why is it female.

and still keep in mind this picture was taking just after the fish was in a bucket for 2 hours and the fish is still relatively a juvenile.

:p

[ChEeRs_BiG_EaRs]

i love all cichlid tanks with large rocks and large swords, they bring out the fish so well, still a nice fish darthv, i like it, though im not even fond of the green terrors. a little to agressive for my liking, good luck wiv breeding though

[dave76]

I thought it was a male because of the long dorsal and anal fins...

[DarthV]

I bet the fins are not the be all and end all of sexing fish. It doesn't have a hump, but it is still young and might not have been the dominant male in its former home. I would imagine venting is probably the most positive way to check the sex, but probably a little harder to do than to look at the fins :)

[dave76]

I still have much to learn about sexing green terrors as this is really my first attempt, and also my first time keeping any cichlid.

[AikidoGuy]

well..........................................

your all wrong :p
(Optix: didnt anyone ever tell you to stick withyour fist instinct!!)

Its a female! I had known that before I gave it to Mojo and just to be sure, we vented it again at casa de mojo under his special lighted magnifying contraption thingy.

[dave76]

does anyone have a pic of a breeding pair?

[optix]

aaahhhhhh man. I knew I shouldn't have went along with everyone else lol. oh well,

[DarthV]

AikidoGuy,

I wasn't wrong...I just didn't say for sure. I think my points were pretty valid...since it was through venting that you determined the sex of the fish :cool:

[Deb2]

I am surprised. Much more colorful than my female, but mine has taken her lumps from my male. I may have to seperate them. He doesn't hurt her just chases her ALL the time. He pays absolutely no attention to the julis (I know they are Africans but I thought the GTs would eat them instead they are breeding like crazy).

[drake]

I had a breeding pair. They produced 2 separate broods. I have 7 that have survived from the 2 groups and are doing well.

I had a rather strange pair. Their habits were the strangest I have ever seen with Green Terrors. The female would lay the eggs and then the male would do his thing. He would then protect the area while the female fanned... seemed normal...

Well, after the little guys hatched; the female chased the male to the corner of the tank and he was not allowed to go anywhere unless it was feeding time. Any other time she would chase him back to the corner of the tank, as well as keeping the rest of the fish in that tank on one side of it.

All was great until and ambitious little Texas Cichlid grew a pair and attacked her one night killing her. I was not happy about this. The Texas is gone from this tank and has been relocated to a friend’s tank.

I have recently picked up a new Green Terror for the tank. I am hoping it is a female but am not sure. The male does not seem to be threatened by it but he is not that aggressive either. The new GT has white instead of the normal orange tips down the dorsal and tail fins, not sure what that means. It also does not appear to be developing a hump like my male has so I am hoping it is a female. Only time will tell.

[AikidoGuy]

wow you brought up an oldie. :D

[MoJo]

That was a cool little fish.