I'm beginning to become fairly certain that all three of mine are female. 
Any tips for sexing the "true" gts?
Any tips for sexing the "true" gts?
Silver Saum or Green Terror - Opinions please
- Thread starter TrikkyMakk
- Start date
Unfortunately not. Me and Ace have had many a conversation discussing just that. He thought he had them figured out, but then started noticing huge color increases in his females. Really there hasnt been any true seperation yet, which is partially what makes this species so much fun, is that there is so little known, meaning more to discuss and try to determine for ourselves.
I have noticed what I believe to be my females being much smaller then my males. My breeder female is only about 3", where as the male in 5", and much more heavily bodied. Although I dont know how much this matters, considering the growth rate for the species in general seems to be very variable.
I do see a female in my second tank getting some dark coloration, similar to what the first female got upon spawning. If she spawns with a male in that tank, then I may have 3 adults extra from my original 7, which I may be selling. Im pretty certain atleast 1 of them is a male, so if I end up moving them then I'll let you know if your interested. Sexed adults of the silbersaums are going to be tough to come by unfortunately though. Atleast for now, hopefully they will be much more readily available soon.
I have noticed what I believe to be my females being much smaller then my males. My breeder female is only about 3", where as the male in 5", and much more heavily bodied. Although I dont know how much this matters, considering the growth rate for the species in general seems to be very variable.
I do see a female in my second tank getting some dark coloration, similar to what the first female got upon spawning. If she spawns with a male in that tank, then I may have 3 adults extra from my original 7, which I may be selling. Im pretty certain atleast 1 of them is a male, so if I end up moving them then I'll let you know if your interested. Sexed adults of the silbersaums are going to be tough to come by unfortunately though. Atleast for now, hopefully they will be much more readily available soon.
I have a for sure male A. sp "gold saum" that is courting two of my three "true" gts. I have two that are around 5" and one at 3", the saum is showing breeding with one of the 5" and the 3". I'm hoping the one is male. Who knows. I don't want any hybrids, that's for sure.
The two that might be female show vertical barring, while the other does not.
Like this (the smallest)...
And this (larger)
This one has never shown the vertical coloration like the others and I'm hoping for male.
You can also see the two possible females are much more chunky than the last one, but the larger "female" was always the largest of the few I received.
The two that might be female show vertical barring, while the other does not.
Like this (the smallest)...
And this (larger)
This one has never shown the vertical coloration like the others and I'm hoping for male.
You can also see the two possible females are much more chunky than the last one, but the larger "female" was always the largest of the few I received.
Well that vertical barring is definitely not a characteristic to define male or female, but to define breeding. While the barring is faintly present in several of my growouts, it is by far most prominent in my breeding pair, both male and female. They both have a VERY dark bar pattern towards their tail end.
honestly, the only reason why silver saums or "TRUE" Green Terrors are rare and hardly seen in any tropical fish store is because they aren't as colorful and considered "drab" by most hobbyists. i also remember them being much more aggressive than their already aggressive "false" counterparts which just adds to their nonexistence. i prefer gold saums just because they are more colorful and i love that yellow reddish tail they get. i can't say that they're docile because my 4" female gold saum who was already established in my 55 with many territories was scaleless, finless, and floating at the top 48 hours after i put in a 5" male gold saum. i was a little ticked off since i had that female for a month and i was 80% sure it'd be fine living with the male but all i have to say is that my male gold saum is my favorite fish and has much more of a personality than the female.
JOJO266;1740218; said:
The fish we're discussing here arent silver saums, they are very different fish. I agree that the Gold Saums are beautiful fish, however they are generally much more aggressive then the True Green terrors, in my experience atleast. It is quite obvious you didnt read the thread though or it would have been made clear the difference in the species your negligently grouped. The True Green Terrors are extremely rare fish, and the silver saums, while less rare then the gold saums, can be found at a PetSmart with minimal effort. The differences are vast, but the rest of the thread already covered that.
the gold saum,silver saum, and red saum all have dark spots on their body with only
the edging being different colors...
the true green terror has very light (shiny) colored spots on the body....not much color
in the edging and less stripes on the face.
my two cents.............
the edging being different colors...
the true green terror has very light (shiny) colored spots on the body....not much color
in the edging and less stripes on the face.
my two cents.............
I guess it's both amusing and annoying to see this arguement on almost every cichlid site ...
... anyone wonder why we don't have this arguement with blue acaras? I mean it's the common name for at least 4 species, but we don't argue over which one was/is the "true" or "orginal" blue acara. We just call all 4 blue acaras and leave it at that.
My wacky suggestion ... drop the "true" or "orginal" from the common name green terror. Now if you want to add "true" to rivulatus that would be fine and just call all 5 possible species green terrors ('Aequidens' rivulatus, 'Aequidnes' sp. Goldsaum, 'Aequidnes' sp. Silversaum, 'Aequidnes' sp. Redsaum {though thought to be just a color variant of Goldsaum} and that dwarf green terror that was around in the early 90's {these were NOT the short bodied GT's showing up now.})
Viva la revolution!!
(*hides now*)
... anyone wonder why we don't have this arguement with blue acaras? I mean it's the common name for at least 4 species, but we don't argue over which one was/is the "true" or "orginal" blue acara. We just call all 4 blue acaras and leave it at that.
My wacky suggestion ... drop the "true" or "orginal" from the common name green terror. Now if you want to add "true" to rivulatus that would be fine and just call all 5 possible species green terrors ('Aequidens' rivulatus, 'Aequidnes' sp. Goldsaum, 'Aequidnes' sp. Silversaum, 'Aequidnes' sp. Redsaum {though thought to be just a color variant of Goldsaum} and that dwarf green terror that was around in the early 90's {these were NOT the short bodied GT's showing up now.})
Viva la revolution!!
(*hides now*)
Just an update from me...my male "gold" saum has bred with two of my three "True" GT's.
And where they decided to keep the fry (quite successfully I might add)...
The real kicker is I didn't just get one batch. The same male fertilized a second female who has wrigglers right now under the driftwood on the left. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. And I think I have a male "true" who just doesn't give a damn. From now on he'll be called George Michaels.
And where they decided to keep the fry (quite successfully I might add)...
The real kicker is I didn't just get one batch. The same male fertilized a second female who has wrigglers right now under the driftwood on the left. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound. And I think I have a male "true" who just doesn't give a damn. From now on he'll be called George Michaels.
darth pike;1751361; said:
The name for "true" green terror is in no way meant to diminish the other species, the gold, silver and red saums are all beautiful fishes. This isnt a competition. We use the name true because the fish we refer to when using the name are the original species given the common name Green Terror. I see how referring to them as "True" may seem like it is dimishing the other species, but thats not the intent. The behaviors and variable nature of alot of this species charictaristics is extremely intriging, to meself and many others, hence the efforts to bring them back to the hobby.
