Update on new to flowerhorns

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Darrenjohn1989

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 23, 2020
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Well I took the barrier out an the big one messed up the little one pretty good. So they're separated again. But still seeing great growth from the little feller

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Are those both males? The big one is looking bloated, reduce the feed a little. What's the third fish in there?
 
That's the little one, I think it's a short body . an I'm hoping the bigger one is a female I've had it almost 2 years vs the one with the bigger hump I've had for like 4-5 months
 
That's the little one, I think it's a short body . an I'm hoping the bigger one is a female I've had it almost 2 years vs the one with the bigger hump I've had for like 4-5 months
Have you vented the fish at all? Looks can be very deceiving when it comes to gender. Also if you plan on breeding I recommend using a female that is smaller then the male is so the female has a place to run to and hide from the male where the male can't fit into. Lastly usually it's not a very good idea to mix African cichlids with other cichlids not from Africa.
 
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I havnt removed them to vent....but the one I think is female her even hooks forward an the one i think is male goes back.
An the African is going to a new home soon hes just visiting i took my wife's tank over cause shes gone through about 3 waves of Africans an one always ends up killing the rest one by one. Even with tons of rock work and putting suggested Africans from forums like these together. An the little convict I'm not sure what imma do with yet I have a 125 but her brothers are in there with a bunch of growing out green terrors an I dont want no breeding. Waiting to choose what GT I wanna keep from a batch I bred
 
The catfish and this one are best friends it follows the flowerhorn everywhere an the flower horn shows no aggression just a push here and there

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Well the way I learned to vent was to check the size of the vent compared to the anus. If the vent is the same size or bigger then the anus it's a female but if the vent is smaller then the anus it's a male. I currently have a female that I thought was male for about a year untill I recently vented it a few weeks ago and found out he was in fact a she. I'll include a pic of her and you'll see how I made the gender mistake for so long lol.

Granted even if they do happen to be opposite genders it still may not work out between them. Some fish can be extremely picky on who they want to breed/be housed with. My smaller female had 3 female kirbensis that she was housed with. She ate 2 of em and gets along fine with the last one left.

Also with the convict, it should be fine to leave in with the FH's just give it somewhere to hide and it'll have no problem at all. Also female convicts tend to stay ridiculously small compared to males. Had a few Max out at 2in at 2 years old. My male is currently 5in.

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Oh dang yea I'm heading to montana in about 20 min for work so I'll have to actually vent them when I get home. Yours definitely looks like a male with the big hump. An I figured I'd just leave the con in with him until he starts acting aggressive towards her. For now they act like little lovebirds just dont want no wierd crossbreed
 
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Oh dang yea I'm heading to montana in about 20 min for work so I'll have to actually vent them when I get home. Yours definitely looks like a male with the big hump. An I figured I'd just leave the con in with him until he starts acting aggressive towards her. For now they act like little lovebirds just dont want no wierd crossbreed
Yeah she definitely threw me thru a loop when I vented her lol. Yeah never had any luck with major crossbreeding. I currently have my male convict in with my big female FH but he hides from her 24/7 unless there is food involved. She would love to tare him apart if she could be she can't fit into his vase in the tank. Only reason I got him with her is because she's bigger and aggressive towards him otherwise if he's in with something smaller he is the aggressive one.
 
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