Sex my Zaire Frontosa

[tiger15]

Can someone sex my Zaire Tembwe Frontosa from the pics. Its about 10 inch now, which I raised from 2 inch juvie solo since 2017. At about 5 year old, it must be a sexually mature male or female. It has long fins that suggest male, but medium hump that suggests female. As it ages, it takes on darker color, and could it be marking of male dominance.

Dont tell me to vent it, since I have no other Front to compare with and I’m no good at venting.

 

[Carter020108]

Male

 

[MrsE88]

It is gorgeous ?

 

[A201]

I'm not particularly good at venting either. Minus a visible heirarchy a group of Frontosa would provide, your best method of gender ID might be territorial aggression towards its non African Cichlid tankmates. A male Frontosa without conspecifics potentially will not exhibit the XL nuchal hump or maximum fin extention, making positive gender ID very difficult. Your Frontosa is very nice looking, but gender ID would just be a guess.

 

[tiger15]

I'm not particularly good at venting either. Minus a visible heirarchy a group of Frontosa would provide, your best method of gender ID might be territorial aggression towards its non African Cichlid tankmates. A male Frontosa without conspecifics potentially will not exhibit the XL nuchal hump or maximum fin extention, making positive gender ID very difficult. Your Frontosa is very nice looking, but gender ID would just be a guess.

I agree. If I keep a colony of Front and I can observe the behavior and external attributes in comparison to sex the fish, and can confirm by venting side by side.

It is the largest fish in my mixed cichlid community, but not the least aggressive. It is not shy either as I had Fronts before that hide.. It is a true center piece fish as it likes to stay out in the open at the center of my 125g.

I don’t think Zaire male can develop XL hump as Burundi, but I’ve seen long trailers in alpha male. Mine has long fins but no trailers, but it is still a young fish at 5. I like its juvenile color better which is sky blue. Now it fluctuates between purple with light barring to nearly black with no barring.

I presume it is a male because of the long Finnage, but time will confirm if it will develop the trailers and grow beyond the current 10 inch. Size is a good sex determinator. I read that Front females max out at 8 to 10 inch, and males can reach 12 inch and beyond

 

[A201]

Male or female, truly a pretty fish. Btw, nice tank too.

 

[neutrino]

Zaires don't generally get a large hump, anyway. The hump suggests male, but I've had females get humps also. 10 inches at that age suggests male, but the right female in the right circumstances can reach that size also, so it's inconclusive. Fins are inconclusive, dorsal fins suggests a male, pectoral fins don't, but they don't disprove male, either-- fin differences in gibberosa can be subtle in the first place and can depend on individual, their rank in a colony, tankmates-- so fins inconclusive.

Zaires are not especially dimorphic, any differences can be ambiguous. When you raise a large enough group, on average you tend to get the following pattern after a year or so: A few smaller, usually female. A couple larger than the others, usually male. And some in between that can go either way. In other words, if "he" (provisionally) was raised in a group, comparison to others in the group might tell you more about gender if he was one of the largest in the group. And if you're observant, by now you might have seen "his" tube down or even a spawn to confirm gender.

Otherwise, you have venting. Sorry, but that's how it is. It's probably male, based on size, even more likely if "he" keeps growing and gets to 12 inches or more. But large females also happen, so it's not a slam dunk.

 

[neutrino]

...And just to add, color doesn't mean much, it's too much influenced by mood, individual fish, etc. I've had groups with dark females and a light male. I knew someone years ago who had an 11 inch, very dark female that consistently produced dark offspring (of which he sold a good number).

 

[tiger15]

...And just to add, color doesn't mean much, it's too much influenced by mood, individual fish, etc. I've had groups with dark females and a light male. I knew someone years ago who had an 11 inch, very dark female that consistently produced dark offspring (of which he sold a good number).

Thanks for the insight from someone who had kept Zaire.

I actually posted an inquiry of my Fronts gender 4 year ago and vented my Zaire along with my other Samazi 4 year ago when they were 6 inch, but inconclusive since neither was sexually mature then. The Zaire grew rapidly from 1 inch to 6 inch in a year, and slowly to 10 inch in the next 4 years. I no longer have the Samazi because the two could not be housed together. The Zaire is the one bullied so it behaved like a female, yet its longer fins suggest male notwithstanding smaller hump suggests female. This is one fish I have kept for years without knowing the gender.

Minimum size to sex Frontosa

I have two frontosa that are approaching 6 inch, one is a Samazi and the other a Zaire Tembwe. They are currently housed in separate tanks and I was trying to bring them together. I was assuming the Samazi is the female because it has shorter fins of the two, but they fought immediately and I...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

I know mood change can change the color, but it is not consistent. My Zaire turned darker under stress some of the time, but lighter other times. So it's a mystery to me whether a happy Front is a dark Front, or vise versa.

 

[neutrino]

I know mood change can change the color, but it is not consistent. My Zaire turned darker under stress some of the time, but lighter other times. So it's a mystery to me whether a happy Front is a dark Front, or vise versa.

Really, it's neither, gibberosa mood/color changes are more subtle and varied. Some 'like' to be dark, some tend to be light, the same fish can be all over the map and change from one minute to the next. I've had fronts at least 20 years and done some breeding, if you ask me color changes are one of the ways they communicate.

Some people think they're stupid fish, probably because of their 'expression', tendency to low energy behavior, and the way they'll just hang in one place at times. They're wrong. They're intelligent, quite curious, and display a lot of subtle behaviors, sometimes contrary to other cichlids. For example, ime when an alpha wants to threaten another male or put a subordinate in its place they tend to close their fins, instead of flaring like Malawi cichlids. It's something like a horse that pins its ears as a warning.

I have a 15 yr old male kapampa, likes to be dark most of the time, always been that way. When he was in the living room tank he'd play this game of capturing a bubble at the surface, taking it to the bottom and letting it go with a little audible pop you could hear if you were close enough. He'd do this repeatedly, sometimes because he wanted fed, sometimes not, just playing. I can hand feed him, he comes to the surface and I tap him on the side and he opens his big mouth and I drop food in. Yesterday he jumped halfway out of the water and grabbed my finger, guess he was being impatient, lol. I've had shy ones, 'grumpy' ones, friendly ones, ones that like to stay in the shadows, ones that like to be front and center in the tank and stare at you. They can be interesting fish if you like subtleties.