Smallest group of juveniles to get a pair

[top dog]

hey all
got a opportunity to get some Doviis that are about 2 inches at the moment, always wanted a dovii pair wanted to know what the smallest group i can get is as the fish are hellishly expensive, rare in South Africa, very lil market for large unpaired adults and i only got space for one 300 gal tank
rate 6 is about the number i am aiming for.
some advise would be great
regards Mark

 

[duanes]

I find with 6-8 you have really good odds.
More is (of course)always better, but we do what we can do (especially when your looking at something as large as a group of dovii will get).
I picked up 6 bartoni juvies last year and got 2 pairs.
Around the same time, acquired 10 carpintus, and ended up with 1 solid pair after some carnage.

 

[top dog]

okay cool, will try stretch the budget to 8

 

[duanes]

I also like to keep a high female to male ratio, at least 3 females to 1 male.

 

[UnstoppableJayD]

Technically 2 lol... but seriously it is really luck, 6 is the number most people work with, In my expierience if you are buying juvies from the same batch try to mix up the sizes ( buy smaller and bigger) as they grow at different rates.

 

[Modest_Man]

It's not luck - it's probability.

Odds of getting at least one male and one female-

One fish - 0%
Two fish - 50%
Three fish - 75%
Four fish - 87.5%
Five fish - 93.75%
Six fish - 96.875%
Seven fish - 98.5%
Eight fish - 99.22%

So you can see that after about 5 fish you see diminishing returns on the odds of getting at least one of each sex when chosen randomly. Of course it's not quite that easy, as you can get sex ratio skewed batches, or artificial selection of all males (choosing the largest 5 for instance).

I digress, but like Duanes mentions if they're sexable a good choice is multiple females to one male.

 

[Reaper13]

With parachromis species the males will usually be the biggest out of the batch even at an early age. I picked my dovii & jag by doing this. It’s not full proof, but if you can get a look at them you have a high probability of deciphering males from females in the group.

If not I’d go 6 & hope for the best lol

 

[top dog]

do not have a chance to actually pick the fish, they getting sent to me
thanks for the reply, got a mate to take 3 as well so with 9 fish we should get close to a pair and hopefully 2
lucky mate just wants a big male

 

[David R]

I got eight festae when I was in a similar situation and ended up with one male and 6 females (and one that never got a chance to find out!). Think of it this way, with more fish you have more chance of getting a second pair, which must be worth a bit if they're rare!

 

[top dog]

true story, so rare here that in 15 years of fish keeping it will be the first time i have seen them, besides a huge male in the national zoo 10 years ago