Sex this maculicauda

[Tobiassorensen]

Im fairly new to vieja species and just got this big macilucauda today. The guy i got it from didnt know the sex either so im turning to all guys and girls here that might be able to help me put with sexing it.

It is somewhere around 27-28cm

 

[dan518]

Need a side on picture of it to see the profile of the forehead, do you know the age?

 

[Tobiassorensen]

Need a side on picture of it to see the profile of the forehead, do you know the age?

I will fix that soon. No i dont know the age of it. But it is huge.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

This is the best i could come up with.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

Anyone?

 

[duanes]

Vieja, are very hard to discern in general, and especially without another Vieja of the opposite sex in the tank.
Females (if alone) will often display male traits such as a steeper forehead, if they are the largest cichlid in the tank.
Males normally have a steep profile, and long fin trailers.
But males when new to a tank, and unknown status in the hierarchy, often do not show dominant features, such as a alpha profile.
Here is an example of a male Vieja breidhori (I haven't had maculacauda in years, long before owning a decent camera), these share very similar characteristics.

Note the square shape of the head, it would be similar in a black belt.
Now compare a female breidhori


above compare the points on the unpaired fins of a male, above
with a female below.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

Ahh i see. The thing is this macilucauda is the only cichlid in this tank. I had to put it in with my rays im growing out due to lack of tanks with bigger fishes right now. I got a couple melaniras in another tank but they are not even half the size yet so im not sure if i can put them together yet.

 

[duanes]

Black belts can be ultra aggressive, and might take out your mild mannered melanura in short order, even if they are similar in size. They do not usually play well with other Vieja.
If you do put them together, pick a time when you can just sit and watch interaction for many hours, with net in hand ready to remove them when the sh't hits the fan..

 

[Tobiassorensen]

Black belts can be ultra aggressive, and might take out your mild mannered melanura in short order, even if they are similar in size. They do not usually play well with other Vieja.
If you do put them together, pick a time when you can just sit and watch interaction for many hours, with net in hand ready to remove them when the sh't hits the fan..

That i have noticed. When i got it home i had seperated one of my pollenis from my rtgg and had the polleni with my rays. It took 15-20 minutes until my polleni was in the surface column of the tank and all black without showing any blue spots so i had to move it from the tank and took a wild guess that it might work with the polleni in a cichlid tank wich already had a polleni. And that worked out fine so i think was lucky with one female and one mal polleni.