Venting Venustus and Dimidiochromis

[Adam GR]

I'd still say it's female. I know when I had venustus a few years ago, only had the 2, I could see the difference in gender at about 2.5-3in, got them at 1in each. I ended up with 1 male and 1 female but sadly the male ended up killing the female so I ended up rehoming the male afterwards. The male way only 4in when I ended up rehoming him. If yours was male I would expect a bit more blue around the face. If yours is the biggest in the tank it might explain why it's got a lil bit of blue sheen too it. I know atleast with African cichlids it's not too uncommon for a female to assume the dominant role in the tank and take on a bit manlier appearance. Just like how if a male is the smallest in the tank they may take on a more submissive role and look more like a female.

Btw what all do ya have it housed with? Can't remember if you've said already but it might explain why yours looks the way it does depending on whether it's towards the top or bottom of the size chart.

My is far from the top, he just recently enter my tank. I have about 8 guys between 6-8in who rules the tank.
Red fin Borley, 3OB’s , Electric blue, 2 Dragon bloods, sulphur head Hap and then a bunch of smaller guys.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

My is far from the top, he just recently enter my tank. I have about 8 guys between 6-8in who rules the tank.
Red fin Borley, 3OB’s , Electric blue, 2 Dragon bloods, sulphur head Hap and then a bunch of smaller guys. View attachment 1432048

Ahhh ok. So it is possible it could be a "sleeper male" then. I would still lean towards female myself but I could be wrong at this point. Btw if ya don't mind me asking, how big was it when ya first got it? From one thing I noticed with my male and female when I still had em was the the female always seemed to grow faster then the male did and during the 8 months I had em the male only got to 2.5in while the female got to 3in during that time even tho they were originally the same size.

Btw very nice looking African tank ya got there. The big, I want to say Eureka Red peacock, looks very nice towards the top center most of the tank looking down upon his subjects lol. He looks to be the biggest guy in the tank atleast. The only thing I would change would be to add in a few more rocks in there to bring that rock wall up a lil bit higher.

 

[Adam GR]

Ahhh ok. So it is possible it could be a "sleeper male" then. I would still lean towards female myself but I could be wrong at this point. Btw if ya don't mind me asking, how big was it when ya first got it? From one thing I noticed with my male and female when I still had em was the the female always seemed to grow faster then the male did and during the 8 months I had em the male only got to 2.5in while the female got to 3in during that time even tho they were originally the same size.

Btw very nice looking African tank ya got there. The big, I want to say Eureka Red peacock, looks very nice towards the top center most of the tank looking down upon his subjects lol. He looks to be the biggest guy in the tank atleast. The only thing I would change would be to add in a few more rocks in there to bring that rock wall up a lil bit higher.

Thank you, nice to hear your opinion about my tank? I will think about more rocks because Im keeping also few mbunas in there but I am a bit worried about swimming space for my bigger guys.
Coming back to venustus - he/she enter tank about 2months ago with 3in in size. So in 2months about grow by 1 - 1.5in.

This big fish in a middle is my red fin, I have eureka as well but unfortunately its in subdominant dress from about a year.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Thank you, nice to hear your opinion about my tank? I will think about more rocks because Im keeping also few mbunas in there but I am a bit worried about swimming space for my bigger guys.
Coming back to venustus - he/she enter tank about 2months ago with 3in in size. So in 2months about grow by 1 - 1.5in.

This big fish in a middle is my red fin, I have eureka as well but unfortunately its in subdominant dress from about a year.
View attachment 1432064View attachment 1432059View attachment 1432060View attachment 1432061View attachment 1432062View attachment 1432063

Lol that makes me want to lean even more towards it being female since mine always grew fast, basically leaps and bounds. The male always grew slow in short lil spurts, so it made it hard to keep track of how big he actually was. So I hate to say it but ya might want to think of getting a replacement if ya want it to stay an all male tank. Granted if your fine with having only 1 possible female then that's upto you, personally I like mixed gender tanks but that's just a personal preference on my part.

 

[Adam GR]

Lol that makes me want to lean even more towards it being female since mine always grew fast, basically leaps and bounds. The male always grew slow in short lil spurts, so it made it hard to keep track of how big he actually was. So I hate to say it but ya might want to think of getting a replacement if ya want it to stay an all male tank. Granted if your fine with having only 1 possible female then that's upto you, personally I like mixed gender tanks but that's just a personal preference on my part.

I think I will add one more, I cant replace fish in my LFS. Today I saw 3 more venustus in my shop. There is only one problem - they all look male because they are probably juiced, so its a game of luck when choosing a “male”.
I will attach a pic of my current one from the time of purchase.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

I think I will add one more, I cant replace fish in my LFS. Today I saw 3 more venustus in my shop. There is only one problem - they all look male because they are probably juiced, so its a game of luck when choosing a “male”.
I will attach a pic of my current one from the time of purchase. View attachment 1432071View attachment 1432072View attachment 1432073

Yeah that's the problem now-a-days with getting fish. I had the same with both of mine when I first get em. Lol least to say a 1in venustus should not be showing blue especially when female.

 

[Adam GR]

Lol that makes me want to lean even more towards it being female since mine always grew fast, basically leaps and bounds. The male always grew slow in short lil spurts, so it made it hard to keep track of how big he actually was. So I hate to say it but ya might want to think of getting a replacement if ya want it to stay an all male tank. Granted if your fine with having only 1 possible female then that's upto you, personally I like mixed gender tanks but that's just a personal preference on my part.

Just a question about mixed gender tank - from time to time one of my “males” turns out to be female, at the moment apart from venustus I have a deep water hap which I suspect to be female and I am usually looking new home for them because I’ve read that this female can cause havoc In all male setup. Is that true? Whats your opinion about it?
From my observation every 2-3weeks my tank (with female in it) becomes a bit more aggressive and my OB’s starts to challenge other big guys, after about 2 days its all over.
To be honest - if thats all I think its not that bad, I am only warried that those occasional clashes can stop my younger males to develop colours.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Just a question about mixed gender tank - from time to time one of my “males” turns out to be female, at the moment apart from venustus I have a deep water hap which I suspect to be female and I am usually looking new home for them because I’ve read that this female can cause havoc In all male setup. Is that true? Whats your opinion about it?
From my observation every 2-3weeks my tank (with female in it) becomes a bit more aggressive and my OB’s starts to challenge other big guys, after about 2 days its all over.
To be honest - if thats all I think its not that bad, I am only warried that those occasional clashes can stop my younger males to develop colours.

Not quite sure. Never really got all too far into African cichlids. I had venustus, dragons bloods and eureka reds along with a male lemon Jake but besides them I just had some mix bred mbuna so can't say I'm all too familiar with Africans. I'm only familiar with the ones I had. I know with the ones I had there was some fighting but it never really got too serious.

O also remembered I had a taiwan reaf, and a jacobfreibergi at one point as well.

 

[BigBeardDaHuZi]

Thank you, nice to hear your opinion about my tank? I will think about more rocks because Im keeping also few mbunas in there but I am a bit worried about swimming space for my bigger guys.
Coming back to venustus - he/she enter tank about 2months ago with 3in in size. So in 2months about grow by 1 - 1.5in.

This big fish in a middle is my red fin, I have eureka as well but unfortunately its in subdominant dress from about a year.
View attachment 1432064View attachment 1432059View attachment 1432060View attachment 1432061View attachment 1432062View attachment 1432063

That orange OB is gorgeous.

 

[Adam GR]

That orange OB is gorgeous.

Thank you, he is a real beauty.
If you planning to add OB to your future tank I have an advice for you - add him slightly later then all the others and give others size advantage. From my experience OB’s eats like pigs and grows faster then typical Peacocks. I’ve kept all together in my few years of fish hobby 5 of them and they all been pretty aggressive and territorial.