texas cichlids

[danny]

hi i am danny from philippines,
i have some texas cichlids and planning to breed them..i have 4 of 'em and i bought them from different batch and they are of different sizes. uhmm..can anyone show me some photos of male and female texas vents?maybe i can pair them on my own.thank you.

[goldenpuon]

Sorry no one replied sooner. I do not know much on cichlids but many other people such as Jon V, Brenda, and Barbra do. Hopefully one of them can help you out. I would but I am far from an expert on them.

I know that there is an article on venting on EA's main page. It has pictures as well.

[Carl]

Apr 20, 2009 15:44:07 GMT -5 goldenpuon said:

Sorry no one replied sooner. I do not know much on cichlids but many other people such as Jon V, Brenda, and Barbra do. Hopefully one of them can help you out. I would but I am far from an expert on them.

I know that there is an article on venting on EA's main page. It has pictures as well.

Here is the link goldenpuon was referring to from our home page links: Everything Aquatic; Venting Cichlids

Some of our resident cichlid experts (such as Barabara, Brenda, Jon) might be along and have more to add

Carl

[corycatwoman]

from what i have read on venting cichlids its the best way to tell if the fish is male or female if they are too similar in colors. some females have different patterns then the males or even different colors but some species are almost identical between male and female so venting is a must do in order to keep a healthy and somewhat peaceful cichlid tank. as for the venting i havent ever done it but like carl and renee said earlier jonv, bikeguy, brenda, and barbara all have and are the cichlid experts on this site.


but from what ive read about it i believe the female has larger vents and the males are smaller. you should only vent after the fish has reached its adult size because with this method if the fish hasnt matured you may find a few females looking like males and males looking like female and thats never good when trying to breed.

with all that said im hoping that jon or barbara or brenda can clarify what ive said and explain it a bit more thoroughly.

[barbara]

I will respond, but I know nothing about Texas cichlids, even being from Texas! I keep African and Malagasy cichlids.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[jonv]

As far as I know of, the pattern in general is the female vents are usually bigger then females, the only thing I am not 100% certain on this, so I'm putting in a few calls to see what I can find out. It would be best if you had full grown adults, but you don't have to wait for this. The issue whether adult or not still remains, what might cause some mis venting really is stress, and when stressed it can skew the look of the vents themselves. Where you have a group and they are not known what gender, you can still vent, provided the idea that female vents are bigger, vent several and if all the vents are about the same, likely you have all the same gender, but if you see a clear difference, that would be your clue. Bigger vent, female, smaller vent, male. That's about all I can offer until I can get some calls comming in.

[bikeguy33]

i have to agree with jon here. you didnt mention how large they are, just that they are all of different sizes. venting is pretty much the only way to sex them at 3 or 4 inches. I am not a fan of venting for the simple fact of handling the fish. it stresses them out quite badly. but if sexing NEEDS to be done, be gentle while venting. as they grow, the male will get a "head hump" where as the female wont. also, the male will be larger and usually grow faster. a side note.....texans have HUGE broods of eggs. if it is a species only tank, most will survive. apparently, 1 breeding pair could supply a fair size city with all the texans it needs. very prolific.

[jonv]

I spoke with Peter Rubin of Atlantis fish, this is a 2.2 million gallon facility not far from me. He indicated while he doesn't sell this species that you'd look for the same basic thing. Larger vent, female, smaller vent, male.

[Carl]

Sorry Bill (bikeguy), I forgot you had a lot of experience with American Cichlids.

BTW, I was not trying to "pass the buck" on this question, as I too have had Texas Cichlids breed, but these were in clients tanks where I place several juveniles in an aquarium that eventually paired up and had fry.
I took no notes or other purposeful actions (although I made some observations, and moved fish out), it mostly was a matter of nature taking its coarse; so I do not think this makes me too much of an "expert" on this subject.

Carl