Black Nasty

[Peckoltia]

Ended up with a ‘pair’ from the 3 little juvies I bought at the start of the year.

They get on beautifully. I find their appearance slightly confusing both look fairly similar.

The smaller presumed female never really shows the all black colouration and has quite long fins.

currently about 6-8”

 

[Natediesel69]

Have they spawned yet or attempted to spawn? I have a pair that formed from an initial batch of 5 that were about 2inches to start, the other three were killed by the pair. Mine started spawning at the 3-4 inch mark, the male is about 9in and female about 8in. My male is still mostly black with some silver/white while the female is almost completely black, and she is the more dominant of the two and she has a pronounced nucal hump whereas the male does not. Its hard to tell what the second presumably female looks like from the picture, but the visible one definitely looks like a male. My male looks quite similar to yours, but my female is always almost completely black, when not spawning she's black with the exception of her face which has some silver, and then when spawning or nearing spawning time she becomes completely black. I can post some pictures if you're interested

 

[duanes]

You "may" have 2 males.
Females normally are quite different once mature

When raising fry the females turn almost totally, solid black, except for the face

 

[Natediesel69]

These pictures are several months old so they're a bit bigger now but otherwise look about the same. Id have to agree with duanes, from what I can tell the second fish looks more like a male as well

 

[duanes]

In "these photos, they both look to have female features to me, but since haitiensus are quite variable, its hard to make a positive judgement.

I have had females change radically if a male is, or isn't in a tank.

above is a female without a male in the tank, below the same femalewith a male present.

I have also had males change drastically due to lighter of darker substrate.

above a male in normal coloration,
below when moved to a tank with light color substrate

 

[Peckoltia]

Thanks for the replies and images.

The pair have never spawned. They relentlessly attacked the third haitiensis until it was removed (and all other fish).The two fish have been moved to their own 60gal where they get along beautifully. They both display and clean surfaces without ever spawning.

I have been keeping fish for 30 odd years, never had a pair of cichlids stump me like these two.
To me it looks like two males have paired up, I’ve never seen this or heard of this - have had two females pair on a number of occasions. Would have thought two males coexisting like this would be particularly odd for any guapote, especially one with the predisposition of a haitiensis.

What are the chances of two males pairing and being totally intolerant of all other fish while being ‘best of friends’?

From a being ‘cool’ standpoint it’s pretty amazing and I’d never seperate them, as it is so unique. From getting a fry standpoint it possesses some issues!? Haha

Attached is the smaller ‘female’ of the ‘pair’

 

[Peckoltia]

Suspected male, about 1-2” bigger with a bit longer dorsal and anal fin.

 

[coltiger1975]

Suspected male, about 1-2” bigger with a bit longer dorsal and anal fin.

Those both look like males to me, I can see what looks like the males breeding tube on both.

 

[Peckoltia]

Certainly looking more and more like two males have 'paired'.

Very unusual situation.

 

[Peckoltia]

Ended up with 2 males. They both share a 60 gal at the minute. Both are growing quickly at about 8/9".

They get along beautifully, never even a split fin to speak of.

Will need to upgrade their tank shortly. Would never have thought two males would coexist like this.