I am a englishman living in suwalki in the north of Poland ,In june i set up an existing aquarium for peacocks and haps and stocked it up,i bought from a man who seemed to have a good selection of fish. I recievded the fish on the bus after about 8hrs and out of 26 fish only had 1 fatality which he replaced. I quickly realized my tank would not be large enough so i bought a 200x60x60 720 Lts and set up and changed over using my existing filters and 50% of the old water,no problems .the problem i am having is that i bought all males and although i have some beautiful fish some of them look to be females[6]now the seller has said he did the best he could but the fish were small, a local petshop has said he will take the females but at a fraction of what i paid for them. the good news is i have found a wholesaler who deals with a German breeder where i can see the quality of his fish online and he guarantees the sex of the fish.Is this a common problem in the cichlid fraternity or have i just been unlucky, by the way the fish were not cheap thankyou.
getting what you paid for.
- Thread starter pagdenjohn@
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Sexing can sometimes be difficult, and at juvenile sizes the problem is even worse; some fish it's not really even safe to vent them until they've grown on a bit.
Often times the less dominant males will fade their colors and will try to look like females to minimize aggression
yes I know young fish are hard to sex but when i ordered the fish the seller was aware that i only wanted males, if he was not 100% he should have not sent the fish out ,now i have to spend good money to replace them,but you live and learn thanks
yes i agree but the fish were smaller than he advertised,when i size a fish i only count the body, over here they must include the tail thanks
Unless you ordered adult fish, you can't put that on the seller. Sexing is very difficult in most haps unless they are adults. If I paid $20-40 for adult male fish then I'd be rather upset. If I paid $8-$20 for juveniles, then I'm going into it knowing my chances. I've gotten large fish in the past that I was 100% sure were male due to color and size and turned out to be female. It's certainly not an exact science to say the least unless they are large enough to vent and you take the time to vent each fish.
Some sellers will offer small sexed fish...beware. I put it on the seller if he sold them sexed and did not deliver. I have more faith in a seller that will only sell adult fish sexed.
I don't think I have ever gotten a female sold as a male, but I have good vendors. And I've bought dozens of adult male fish.
You also have to be careful buying small fish that are hormoned to make them color up and look like males.
I don't think I have ever gotten a female sold as a male, but I have good vendors. And I've bought dozens of adult male fish.
You also have to be careful buying small fish that are hormoned to make them color up and look like males.
thankyou for your reply, i agree with you 100%, when i lived in the uk it was easy to drive and go and choose what you wanted,but here in poland i am a long way from any decent fish and not many will deliver,most of the good outlets are 600 km awy and the cost of diesel would be more than the price of fish. I have now found a dealer who trades with a top German breeder i have just put my first order of 7 fish in they should be first generation off wild caught fish, so i am keeping my fingers crossed thankyou.