Ps Zebra info. and Acei

[santoury]

I'm thinking of setting up a new African tank - but I am having a problem sexing them for the most part.
Yeah, yeah, I know all the "regular" sexing methods, but how are ZEBRAS sexed? In a tank FULL of them, every fish seems to have egg spots.
Also, you can't go by color, right? Since you have "blue zebras, red zebras, OB zebras", etc...

So, yeah, I guess I'm looking at setting up a zebra-only tank, with mainly females.

Also, there are some Acei types that look just like zebras. How to tell them apart?

 

[kay-bee]

A zebra species tank may make for an interesting aggressive set up.

There are numerous zebra species which aren't all clumped together under 'pseudotropheus zebra'). Also the genus as been revised to metriaclima (or alternatively, maylandia), rather than pseudotropheus.

Some zebra species are dimorphic making gender determination among the adults fairly easy (for example the male BB zebra in my avatar has a completely different apperance than the female counterpart), or as with the 'wild type' red zebra which has blue males and red females). So in some cases you can go by color (of matured fish).

Other zebra species are monomorphic and so determining gender is based on subtle differences (such as determing genders among cobalt blue zebras (m. callainos), or 'red-morph' red zebras (m. estherae).

So basically the answer to your question ultimately depends on which type of zebra's you get. The presence of eggspots are typically irrelevant. Many will advise that keeping several zebra species in the same tank will promote hybridization.

By "acei types" do you actually mean pseudotropheus types?

 

[Scotty]

What a brilliant explanation regarding these wonderfull fish.
The only real safe way to determine the sex, of fish of the same colouring, is by venting them. I bought some Metriaclima callainos(blue cobalts) and what was the male turned out to be the female as they were rather small at the time of purchase.
Once a fish is about 4-5cm long the female reproduct vent is claerly visible. Egg spot mean nothing unless there are numerous on the anal fin.

 

[mike dunagan]

venting is the only way... If you do not ask to see the parts you may get a surprise...

 

[redzebra24]

i say venting or if the fish is holding