You need to watch the group closely and you should see signs of males starting their quest for dominance.
You can normally pic them out very early.They will be brighter than the females and they are normally the ones doing most of the chasing.
Behaviour is as much of a clue to sexing as is colouration, so be observant of fish trying to be king of the pack as these will be male.
I liked keeping rivulatus in groups of multiple females to one male.This gives any females that have recently bred a rest from the attention of a male eager to spawn again.
Your tank is not really big enough for this approach and will only just work for one pair.
As soon as a pair forms, you need to remove all the other fish.Provide lots of caves for your female to hide in.Males can be pretty relentless when they want to breed.
You will soon know when you have a pair.The female will darken in colour and her face will appear whiter.They will be together a lot and chase off other fish as they look for a spawning site.
Good look,they are a beautiful species to keep.
I recommend hoplo catfish as tank mates and no other cichlids.
Here are my old rivulatus.
On the photo below the male is at the rear at the bottom. Notice how bright he is compared to the females.
You can normally pic them out very early.They will be brighter than the females and they are normally the ones doing most of the chasing.
Behaviour is as much of a clue to sexing as is colouration, so be observant of fish trying to be king of the pack as these will be male.
I liked keeping rivulatus in groups of multiple females to one male.This gives any females that have recently bred a rest from the attention of a male eager to spawn again.
Your tank is not really big enough for this approach and will only just work for one pair.
As soon as a pair forms, you need to remove all the other fish.Provide lots of caves for your female to hide in.Males can be pretty relentless when they want to breed.
You will soon know when you have a pair.The female will darken in colour and her face will appear whiter.They will be together a lot and chase off other fish as they look for a spawning site.
Good look,they are a beautiful species to keep.
I recommend hoplo catfish as tank mates and no other cichlids.
Here are my old rivulatus.
On the photo below the male is at the rear at the bottom. Notice how bright he is compared to the females.
