P-Bass Mating Size

[I<3fish]

Ur wrong...there has been many pairs that are smaller than 18" unless ur talking about maybe tems....then maybe your right but it really just depends on age

Well I'm talking wild fish, but you are right, I would say more like 12" would be a size for them to start pairing up.

 

[Hasi]

What species are they? Most pbass don't breed till after 18" and tems/other longer bodied cichla don't even attempt until after 22" or so.

Hey mate do you have a reference for this info?
Would love to read it. Very interested in these findings

I<3fish - any luck with the above???

 

[I<3fish]

I<3fish - any luck with the above???

Working on it... Trying to find article.

 

[I<3fish]

Ur wrong...there has been many pairs that are smaller than 18" unless ur talking about maybe tems....then maybe your right but it really just depends on age

And yes, age is the MAJOR factor, not so much length, due to different growth rates and water qualities among individuals, reading this article that is talking about C.ocellaris sexually maturing (not breeding) in captivity at 1 year and about 300mm (SL which is from tip of snout to end of caudal peduncle, not including tail.) I do know that cichla will breed in captivity around this size, but in the wild the average caught C. temensis hovering over nests/guarding fry (in another article) was 450mm (also SL.) One of the article, also states that the fish in the Cinaruco, on average were smaller than the fish in many other systems, so the sexually maturity was also attained at smaller sizes in the Cinaruco.

Cites:
http://wfscnet.tamu.edu/winemiller/lab/Jepsen_etal_1999_Cichla_JFB.pdf
http://www2.fiu.edu/~laymanc/PDFs/pdf%201.pdf