Female green terror- age/size to breed?

[Lusus_Naturae]

My green terrors had a growth spurt, the male grew faster than the female and is about 6 inches now, the female is about 4-5 inches including tail. They were almost the same size a couple months back. This week my female turned darker colors and her tube dropped, but otherwise they are not grooming a spot to breed. I thought she would have to be bigger than this to breed, or even drop her tube. Is she big enough to breed or is this normal for a young female? All my previous ones have dropped only when ready to lay.. (pics are in my gallery)

 

[AcsFoolMike]

Seems to me like she's prepping for it. Female's should be good to go at 5 in.

 

[Lusus_Naturae]

I just hope they hold off for at least a month -we are moving and I'm going to get them a bigger tank then too.

 

[blksubykid]

My female has laid eggs since she was about 3". There is no male or any other cichlid in the tank just loaches and ditchers but she defends her eggs like there were.

 

[AcsFoolMike]

I just hope they hold off for at least a month -we are moving and I'm going to get them a bigger tank then too.

Since this is their first spawn you probably won't get any fry for the first few...they usually go through some trial and error before they get it right.

 

[davew]

i had a few green terrors to grow out just so i could get a decent male ,2 paired up the female laid eggs which hatched and she was only 3 inches.

 

[Lusus_Naturae]

Well, since I posted this originally I have had a few things happen. I bought a second female green terror which was about 3 inches just for the heck of it. I am lining up a 125 gallon to move everybody into after the move to the new house - which is now delayed until the end of the month. AND -the big news, the new 3 inch female gt paired up with my male and they have bred.

Here comes the situation - with all the stuff I have been doing with the new house (whole renovation needed before moving in) I have slightly neglected the tanks. I skipped water changes and simply topped up the past two weeks. I checked everybody but didn't find out they bred until today when I finally took some time to look in the tanks and found the small female with about 75-100 free swimming fry! Just Monday I pulled out 18 gallons and did a water change without knowing and on top of that I dumped the water back in the tank right where I saw them today hiding. I don't know how many I may have killed but the ones in there tonight seem ok.

This was unplanned at this stage, and I have no spare tanks right now unless I pick up a ten gallon and move them over to that. I know I may still lose all of them to being snacks for the other fish in the tank too. Since I will have to move at the end of the month what would be better to do? Try to save this batch or just let it take its course since they will probably breed again later anyhow?