For the large predator cichlids I’ve grown out.. umbee and dovii.. it would seem males are less common. For instance twice I’ve grown out 6 dovii and neither time I had any males. Umbee- 3x I’ve grown out a group of 6 only 1 male.
I haven't found that to be true with mine. I've grown out dovii and haitiensis, and it always seems like a fairly even mix. But I've always had much larger numbers so it could just have been luck of the draw with only a group of six. Depending on where you got them, the larger specimens may have been picked over first which tends to be the males, leaving the seller with mostly females. But it's hard to say for sure.
Jeez that’s only 4-5 inches?! Those look full grown! Beautiful!
Yeah they formed the pair out of a group of growouts at a small size. I think the hormones of them wanting to spawn are a big factor in any fish achieving its best adult colors. They also started spawning at a very small size. My haitiensis surprised me as well. I just happened upon three 1 inch fish at my local fish store. At 2.5 inches two of them paired off and started going after the third fish non stop even in a heavily planted 40b. The male grew a small hump and the female turned all jet black and has stayed that way ever since. Not a stitch of color in her unless you count the clear fins. The male took awhile longer to go fully white but he was very white by around the 4 inch mark.
For a female a 180 galI would be amazing! but for a male or a pair i would say the minimum tank size is 210 gallons and that's 6.5X2X2.5 the bare minimum.
