Need help sexing my Heroes sp. atabapos Severus

[foots]

I need help you guys. I bought about 8 of these from jgentry about 18 mos ago. They were about 2" to 3" at the time. I grew them out and only kept these two, that I thought was a male and female. But I'm not sure, they act like they want to breed and I see them get into a lip lock battle and they flop each other with their tails and some time I see the one that I think is a male chase the other one around the tank. But still no eggs.

Take a look and please tell me what you all think. I've marked the photos as to what I think each fish is. The one I think is male has distinctive marks and dots in his face and the female has none of these, her face is plain.

Sorry about the pics and she was hard to get as he has been chasing him/her today. Thanks, Foots

 

[ryansmith83]

It's really hard to say. I think I have the parents to your fish because I bought the wild pair from JD. I cannot tell them apart until they drop their tubes to spawn. I always heard that males would get more spots along the gills and their red pattern reached higher up on the body than the females, but I have not found this to be true. I have a giant third Atabapo that is larger than both of the fish in the pair, with a steep forehead, lots of spots, and lots of red. That fish I was positive was a male. Then when I mixed it in the tank with JD's pair, it beat the crap out of my female and laid eggs with the male. So it was a female after all.

I have a pair of true H. severus from the Orinoco as well and it's the same situation. The male may have a few more spots on his face, but otherwise they are identical in size and coloration. If I had to take a guess, I'd say the first fish you posted is a male (this is the same fish in the last two shots, right?) and the one with the solid face is a female. There's always a chance that they're both female, though.

 

[foots]

Ryansmith83, Yea you must have the parents to these. And yes all the male pics is of the same fish as well as the female. If they are in fact male and female. Have you every raised any young out of the original pair? I may try to find another one to see if I can pair them up or If this turns out to not be a pair I might sell these and try to pick up a pair of Heros Notatus from some where. I would have kept the group I bought longer but they started to act up and I just give the other six (I think it was) away. Wish I knew who had them, maybe I could swap one out. Oh well that's the breaks.

Hey thanks for getting back to me. I really appreciate it. Thanks again

Foots

 

[ryansmith83]

I've raised out a couple spawns but I haven't kept any for myself, with the exception of one straggler who managed to get sucked into my wet-dry sump. He's only about 3 - 4" now. I also have a group of 1.5 - 2" juvies that I'll be selling soon.

Both pairs I have are very prolific. They each have eggs right now, actually. I usually get a couple spawns a month depending on how fast I pull the fry (or how fast the tankmates eat them).