yet another sex my Saum

[GreenTerror3003]

So I was randomly browsing CL and stumbled across an ad for African cichlids for sale. In the footnotes of the listing he also claimed to have a large JD for $12, but had no pictures of one. After multiple attempts to confirm the fish he was calling a JD was the large gold saum that was in the pictures I drove out and picked up this fine specimen. So is it a male/female (I'm thinking male) and is it just me or is its belly a little sunken in?



By the way it is close to 8" nose to tail. Thanks for any input.

I am almost certain that is a male Green Terror. Perhaps the only minor area of doubt is the sunken belly really influencing the appearance of the fish, but again I am almost certain that is a male. Many indicators influence my decision or opinion. Aside from the drastically sunken belly, that is a beautiful fish with potential! I would really carefully observe his eating patterns and help ensure he is receiving the proper nutrition though since I would be concerned with his health; also with proper nutrition, his color should improve drastically! I hope this helps!


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[tantrick]

Right now I'm trying Cichlid Gold; it will grab a bunch of pellets, half eat them and spit a large portion out. What do you guys feed your larger saums?

On another note I have moved it to my quarantine tank (gonna need a bigger one now)and started a round of parasite guard according to my LFS as a good method to help get rid of internal parasites if it does in fact have them with that sunken belly.

 

[Aquaticfan]

Right now I'm trying Cichlid Gold; it will grab a bunch of pellets, half eat them and spit a large portion out. What do you guys feed your larger saums?

On another note I have moved it to my quarantine tank (gonna need a bigger one now)and started a round of parasite guard according to my LFS as a good method to help get rid of internal parasites if it does in fact have them with that sunken belly.

Best bet is to soak its food in some Epsom salts as well. This should dispell the parasites. You can also try dosing tje water with it as well. There are other meds that work as well to. Probably better then parasite guard.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[GreenTerror3003]

Right now I'm trying Cichlid Gold; it will grab a bunch of pellets, half eat them and spit a large portion out. What do you guys feed your larger saums?

On another note I have moved it to my quarantine tank (gonna need a bigger one now)and started a round of parasite guard according to my LFS as a good method to help get rid of internal parasites if it does in fact have them with that sunken belly.

What did you male primarily eat before you bought him? I mean what was he eating before he started rejecting food, do you know?


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[GreenTerror3003]

Right now I'm trying Cichlid Gold; it will grab a bunch of pellets, half eat them and spit a large portion out. What do you guys feed your larger saums?

On another note I have moved it to my quarantine tank (gonna need a bigger one now)and started a round of parasite guard according to my LFS as a good method to help get rid of internal parasites if it does in fact have them with that sunken belly.

My Green Terror pair loved the Hikari Massivore pellets. They were large enough for them to feel satisfied and they seemed to love the mostly protein content. I bought the normal Hikari Gold pellets and they almost always rejected the pellets. Their favorite food a majority of the time tends to be actually what the person has trained them to eat. Sure a fish has natural preferences from various sources from their habitat but they also can and most often are trained what to eat. That is why I was wondering what he was eating primarily because if he loves the food, then it might help him put weight back on. However if it is parasites, then that is another issue.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[the animal guy]

The fish in the pic can either be a male or female, and the sunken belly doesn't help because a healthy female should have a rounder belly. There is no external markers to sex GT as in Dampsey so sexing is never easy. I raised hundreds of GT from fry to maturity, and still have difficulty sexing until the fish are 4 to 5 inch size. At that size, the male will have slighlty longer fins, a steeper forehead, and brighter in color, while the females are plumer and duller in color. But the clues are not of much use to novice unless you can compare the fish side by side.

nah bro u trippin
what you saying r not the things a person who raised hundreds of GTs FROM FRY TO MATURITY should say.. lol

Im not gonna lie. I kept 1 GT at 4" fr a month then gave it away. That's all the GT experience I've ever had.


look another gt sexed at very small by looks only.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?544644-help-sexing-my-green-terrors-please

 

[Manu8__too]

So I was randomly browsing CL and stumbled across an ad for African cichlids for sale. In the footnotes of the listing he also claimed to have a large JD for $12, but had no pictures of one. After multiple attempts to confirm the fish he was calling a JD was the large gold saum that was in the pictures I drove out and picked up this fine specimen. So is it a male/female (I'm thinking male) and is it just me or is its belly a little sunken in?



By the way it is close to 8" nose to tail. Thanks for any input.

That's really funny Tantric. I too called on that Craigslist add (I live in STL). I could barely understand the guy, but knew from the pic that it was a Gold Saum and not a JD. As for it's gender, I would say it's a malnourished and subdominant fish. If you can get him back to health and plump him up, he will be an absolute stunner. Females are typically much more round and do not exhibit that type of fin reticulation and/or elongated body. Give him a few weeks to color up and nurse him back to good health. In time, I think you (as well as all of us) will see that it's a nice male.

 

[the animal guy]

it's a male form female. A female that looks like a male. imo

 

[fishrlife]

100% male imo

 

[tantrick]

Well at least I'm not the only one who is confused as to the sex of this fish. Thanks for all the pointers guys on what sex identifiers to keep an eye out for.

Manu, yeah he said he had about 4 other people ask about it after I told him at 11am that I would pick it up that night. He definitely had some nice discus so the tank swapping was needed.