tinytawnykitten Posted March 8, 2010 Report Share Posted March 8, 2010 Just wanted to share cos my Red Empress from Alex has finally started to look beautiful. I have had him since he was wee. Sorry about the dreadfully dirty glass!! Any tips on how to clean it? At the moment I have an old visa card which I use to scrape the glass. I have one of those scrapey things from the pet shop but it is only plastic or rubber and doesn't do the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlid_fan Posted March 8, 2010 Report Share Posted March 8, 2010 at what age did it get to this colour? I have 8 of them @7 monthes old,still grey with a black stripe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinytawnykitten Posted March 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2010 I have had him for about 2 years and he wasn't tiny when I got him, he was about 4cm long. He has been like yours until now. I was beginning to think he was a girl. It is worth the wait though. He is beautiful (despite the grubby glass!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firenzenz Posted March 8, 2010 Report Share Posted March 8, 2010 You can start to pick males out at 3-4cm but they can take an age to colour up. I recently took my 1M(14cm) out of tank with 4F(10cm), to find one female was in fact subdominant male, so speed of colouring up will really be environmental as much as anything else. I use a scotchbrite pad for that algae- glass tank though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elusive_fish Posted March 8, 2010 Report Share Posted March 8, 2010 You can start to pick males out at 3-4cm but they can take an age to colour up. I recently took my 1M(14cm) out of tank with 4F(10cm), to find one female was in fact subdominant male, so speed of colouring up will really be environmental as much as anything else. I use a scotchbrite pad for that algae- glass tank though. What do you use to determine the gender at that size? I'm getting a couple off another forum member around that size and I'd like a couple of males to eventually put in my large cafe aquarium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firenzenz Posted March 8, 2010 Report Share Posted March 8, 2010 I look at the red line with a hint of white along the top of dorsal and and tinge of blue in dorsal itself and a hint of red tinge in tip of anal fin. females will have the red line but not the same tinge to fin IMO. If they in a group of juvies the most dominant male might show himself with behaviour if you can watch for a moment or two. As I said above depending on environment you might find that getting more than one to colour up is difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ch@d Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Sometimes if you have more than one in a tank, there will only be one coloured up in the tank and the rest not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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