Do you have experience with a Firemouth Cichlid?
14 posts • Page 2 of 2
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zambize - Posts: 401
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:14 pm
That's why I was thinking Firemouth for my 55 gallon. He would be larger and would be my centerpiece fish.
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dizzcat - Posts: 648
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am
Tm, actually, if your two are locking lips and displaying it is a really great sign! When they choose mates, they will do this, and the longer it goes on the more likely they will pair up :-) If there is two females the male will choose the one who fights him and does not back down.
Mine fight a lot a week or so before a spawn.
Mine fight a lot a week or so before a spawn.
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Tmercier834747 - Posts: 887
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm
its been i'd guess about a month since I saw them really going at it---locking lips. It lasted for about half an hour and then the ''female?'' did what it usually does: tuck and run. As best I know and can tell they have yet to get jiggy with it...although I should probably consider removing my striped raphael if indeed these two do pair up, because he's armored better than most plecos and is a very good nocturnal scavenger.. egg thief no doubt.
The "female" shows very very little color almost ALL the time, maybe spends 1/3 of daylight at the male's side, and 2/3 being chased..Maybe I'm just too impatient but I don't think I'm using the right ways to sex them. I never get any real concrete answers, and have heard many accounts of people thinking one male and realizing months to a year later it was actually female or vise versa..I'm so confused. lol
And if you're comfy with it Z go for it, a 55gal (with cover) leaves a lot more space for anything to get away from anything else including a firemouth than a 10gal holding pen at petsmart.
The "female" shows very very little color almost ALL the time, maybe spends 1/3 of daylight at the male's side, and 2/3 being chased..Maybe I'm just too impatient but I don't think I'm using the right ways to sex them. I never get any real concrete answers, and have heard many accounts of people thinking one male and realizing months to a year later it was actually female or vise versa..I'm so confused. lol
And if you're comfy with it Z go for it, a 55gal (with cover) leaves a lot more space for anything to get away from anything else including a firemouth than a 10gal holding pen at petsmart.
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tomargir - Posts: 39
- Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:18 pm
I've been keeping firemouths exclusively for the past 4 years and i know one thing for sure: if you buy 10 firemouths from your LFS 9 of them will turn out to be males.
The key for keeping firemouths is the following. Either make a pair out of a bunch of fish or keep lots of them.
Females are hard to find. 9 out of 10 fish sold by your LFS will sooner or later turn out to be males (non-expert LFS employees think that 1 inch firemouths that have no coloration are females - but most of them develop their colors later on).
So the best thing to do is to get 6-7 fish and put them at the same time in the tank (supposing that you have fishless cycled properly). Take time to see if any pair bonds start to form. If you are lucky and get a pair, remove the rest of the firemouths (i think that your tank could accomodate for 2 couples at most) and then you can either stock further with fast swimming community fish (called dither fish) or you can keep the pairs.
If all fish turn out to be males (as was in my case) the more fish you have the less injuries and fights you will get. The alpha male will always chase the rest of the firemouths, so if you have only one, he will be attacked all day long (and eventually will get stressed out becoming prone to infections). If this is the case, add dither fish and other firemouths to give the A-male more targets for his aggression.
The key for keeping firemouths is the following. Either make a pair out of a bunch of fish or keep lots of them.
Females are hard to find. 9 out of 10 fish sold by your LFS will sooner or later turn out to be males (non-expert LFS employees think that 1 inch firemouths that have no coloration are females - but most of them develop their colors later on).
So the best thing to do is to get 6-7 fish and put them at the same time in the tank (supposing that you have fishless cycled properly). Take time to see if any pair bonds start to form. If you are lucky and get a pair, remove the rest of the firemouths (i think that your tank could accomodate for 2 couples at most) and then you can either stock further with fast swimming community fish (called dither fish) or you can keep the pairs.
If all fish turn out to be males (as was in my case) the more fish you have the less injuries and fights you will get. The alpha male will always chase the rest of the firemouths, so if you have only one, he will be attacked all day long (and eventually will get stressed out becoming prone to infections). If this is the case, add dither fish and other firemouths to give the A-male more targets for his aggression.
