I need help sexing motas.

[Albertan]

A couple of years ago, I ordered six motas from Ken Davis when a local forum held a group order. After keeping every other Parachromis spp. except loiselli, I was a bit surprised to find how murderous motas are. Despite keeping them in a large growout tank, the dominant fish made short work of all the others. I thought/assumed it was a dominant male and moved him to his own tank, but not before he killed four of the others and left what I thought to be a female with nothing but the caudal peduncle for a tail. I eventually lost that fish as well...poor thing led a hard life in my tanks.

Disheartened by my experience, but not yet ready to give up, I came across a LFS with motas one day and decided to pick up the better of the two fish they had left. I had no intention of putting these fish together in the near future but I thought maybe one day. This newer fish turned out to be as viscious as the others. Most of my Parachromis' aren't actually that fussy on feeders...not this one. It wasn't long before the second fish was in quarantine and the original fish went into the 230g with larger male freddies and a male dovii.

I've all but given up breeding these fish, and was out taking pictures today to post them on the For Sale section in the local forum. As I was taking pictures, I got to thinking that I really am not 100% sure on the sex of these fish. The bigger one is much more drab than the smaller, but I always assumed they were different male variants. I've never had the opportunity to see grown motas in person as mine were all killed in short order by the dominant fish. So anyways, I need help confirming the sex of these two fish, if for no other reason than to make sure I am not misrepresenting the fish I want to sell. Thanks for any assistance.

Fish #1 - Ken Davis fish. Currently ~10".

Fish #2 - LFS fish. Currently ~6" (guessing)

 

[danny2875]

Thats a male. MAles have the spotting. Here is my old male RTM.



Here is his female notice the lack of spotting and more intense red coloring.

 

[danny2875]

Both males u have there. There are also a Gold varient in the motaguense.

Here is a gold male

 

[Albertan]

Thanks danny. Sometimes you just start second guessing yourself. I went through old posts on motas using the search feature. It seems to me the first, larger fish is a "regular" male and the second smaller fish is a RTM male. Does that sound right? I think I will just sell them and start over to try to get a breeding pair. I think finding a mate for my 14" dovii would be 10X easier than pairing either of these two.

 

[danny2875]

Yes thats what I was thinking. The top pic is a regular. The second one looks like a young RTM male. I wish i didnt trade my old RTM pair. They use to spawn like crazy for me. I currently have a pair of Gold mota's.

 

[KCinSoCal]

Is that the typical thought on RTM, that they are the hardest to get a strong pair of all the parachromis?

 

[Albertan]

I have found the motas to be far and away the most insanely agressive Parachromis spp. I have kept. I couldn't keep them all alive long enough to get a pair.

Anyways, after further research, I am quite confident both of these fish are males. They have been listed in the Marketplace section here along with a 10" Ken Davis dovii, and a couple of foot long freddies. Cheers.

 

[danny2875]

I had no problems at all pairing my motas. To me all the parachromis seem to pair fairly well.

 

[cichlidfish]

I had no problems at all pairing my motas. To me all the parachromis seem to pair fairly well.

How's the aggression? I hear males can get really aggressive to their mate.

 

[lulurida]

I aboslutley have just recently have fallen in love with anything parachromis. This week I finally made some room and have an empty 75 waiting for some fish. I would really like a breeding pair but I realize that's kinda hard with a 75.
I can't make up my mind on motas or freddies.

What do you guys think?

Wheres some reliable places to get these guys?