I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. I've got a small texas (3 inches or so) being housed alone. It had built a nest in the gravel, moving it to form an indentation that reached to the bottom pane of glass. I disturbed this nest when cleaning the gravel yesterday, and it has started to build a nest again. Any idea as to whether or not it will keep doing this? Any idea of the sex? I'm thinking female, but I'm not seeing the dark spot on the dorsal fin that I've heard about. There is a dark spot on the middle of the body and on the caudal peduncle. Thanks in advance.
Lonely Texas?
- Thread starter Druu
- Start date
some cichlids just like to dig, keeps them entertained. there's no reason to keep destroying the nest. unless it's annoying you for some reason. you won't have any fry's floating around the tank as long as you have no male fish to fertilize eggs.
post a pic for sexing.
post a pic for sexing.
Thanks guys. I didn't think it would stop digging. I will post pics as soon as possible, but this will not be until May as the Texas is at home and I left my camera on campus. The depressions it makes are symmetrical and look like nests, so I was hoping that it could be sexed based on behavior so I could get it a mate.
Druu;1636122; said:
A fat stomach and short fins will indicate female. Add a piece of slate to the tank and if it doesn't have eggs, I would call it a male.
You can vent it too.
Or just look for a black blotch in the dorsal. That would indicate female.
Whenever I do water changes I mess up the digging. They seem to like re-digging them.
Whenever I do water changes I mess up the digging. They seem to like re-digging them.
Thanks, no black blotch on dorsal. I was looking for that since I saw it mentioned here on the forum a wile ago. Could you elaborate on the venting? I'm fairly certain I see a breeding tube coming out of the cloaca, but cannot get a close look at it.
Druu;1636467; said:
Pointy tube=male, rounded tube=female. You can take the fish out of the tank for a closer look.
The black blotch means nothing, I have a female without a black blotch. (Well, if there's a black blotch female-100%, if there isn't one, it's 50/50.)
The blotch will accurately sex cyanos/carpintis' roughly 90% of the time, so it does mean something.