I have recently acquired 4 of these lovely fish. What sites would you recommend for reliable information on sexing (and hopefully breeding) them?

Thanks,

Keri Anne.

Males will be larger, have longer fins and have a hump on their forehead.

I'm guessing you got some off Afrikan? Mine have grown fast and are already obviously sexable. For the sake of keeping the bloodlines healthy and to avoid problems associated with inbreeding etc, I would recommend getting either males/females from different parents rather than breeding brothers with sisters. Firenzenz has some that have recently bred, so you could possibly get some from him. I have a male from Afrikan and a female from Firenzenz that I'm planning on breeding once they get a bit larger. I'm going to be pretty fussy with the fry and will only sell males to the shops so they [hopefully] don't end up being indiscriminately bred like convicts with no attention paid to the size/colour/quality of the parents.

Hey Keri -Anne

They are a great fish eh?

I have mine by themselves athe moment but they are a great little cichlid for a community tank,

One of many:

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Arch ... sajica.php

I put a vertical rock at one end of the tank to section it off and thgey made a nest behind and at the base of it.

I have won some on an auction. not sure if the seller is from here or not. I'm excited and can't wait to get them. Hopefully they'll fit in perfectly in my tank.

fattythecatty-I think the ones you got were Afrikan

Thanks for the replys everybody.

No, these did not come from Afrikan. They are descended from stock that Warren had but are not from him. The story as to how I ended up with them is no really mine to post.

How big do they have to be before they are sexible?

I have 4 all up. 1 of which is quite small, 1 is sulking, 1 is definitely a female and 1 is probably a male. It is the smaller 1 and the sulking 1 I'm not really sure of.

a couple of cms I would have thought. I have a few coming up to that size and a bit of behavior and fin colour would give me indications.

The small ones need lots of hidey holes and are quite timid for a young cichlids, they also seem to like hanging out under floating plants .

Here's one of my males, the humps are bigger now.

Yeap definately not from me but from the same stock that I have.

Just watch the smaller one, the more dominant Sajica can decide to pick at the weakest link, might pay to give some good cover as firenzenz mentioned.

Just watch the smaller one, the more dominant Sajica can decide to pick at the weakest link, might pay to give some good cover as firenzenz mentioned.

Its funny, my three males are in a 3'x18x18 with a heap of other american cichlids and they seem to get on quite well. There's a bit of a tussle now and then, but mostly they hang out near by each other. The three females (two from Afrikan one from Firenzenz) are constantly picking at each other! Probably because they're in a smaller tank (2'x1'x1') and are only with 3 corys. I've actually had to separate the largest female from the other two as they were both kept pinned in a corner behind the filter intake!!

It is the females that we had major problems with, in a group, mentioned in another thread, they decided to pick each other off before we intervened, just out of the blue, things too a nasty turn :roll: :lol:

Okay, so plenty of hidy holes and females are more territorial than males. More social when in larger groups. Females have black lines on edge of fins and males have a hump which gets more distinctive as they get older.

Did I miss anything?

I've noticed my three females have yellow fins (especially dorsal) and the males have darker red. Not sure if thats always the case though.

Seems to be the case with mine

Yeah the males and females are totally different in colour. None of my females even show a hint of red.. she is more bronzey and yellow tones with black.

The males I noticed can change colour rather alot, breeding mode being more of the red colouration yet the other day my male out of the pair we are currently breeding from, almost looked very similar to her colouration throughout the day, it was a hard case.

mine seem more blue and purple...

This the same fish as the one on the left in the 2nd shot.

She like the male have even changed colouring since these, because of breeding obviously but also I suspect as they are still maturing.