Taiwan Reef Biotope.

Great pics as always @Broder!:congrats:LOVE the plants and driftwood too!

 

Looks Beautiful!!!

What camera do you use to take pics? You are great at getting the right shots!!!:yes1:

 

@Broder.... Absolutely stunning fish and tank.... those colours!!

I am confused... had never ead up on this...
Do fish really change sex as they grow? Is it all species or just certain species?

 

thanks very much @Ortaega. I have a Nikon D7000 and these were taken with a 105mm macro lens. Haha, no great skill involved here.. I just take lots of pics and select the best. I definitely don't plan any poses.

thanks Maria. I know that submissive male cichlids such as pseudotropheus Saulosi change colouration to that of the females, but their sex remains the same. I have no idea if that's what's happening in reverse with mine, or if they're actually changing sex. Hopefully we have some clever peeps that can help

 

Flippen stunning!

 

Howzit @Broder

I don't believe it's possible for Rift Lake Cichlids to change sex at such a late stage in their lives, possibly as an embryo.
I can't remember if I sent them to you sexed or if you picked up the ratio from colors?

It's a bit strange that you had 2 females holding at one stage but now you have only one fish that looks like a female. What foods are you feeding them? Some commercial foods are "enhanced" with hormones and other additives to intensify color if your fish. Some of these are capable of making female Malawi Peacocks look like males, until such time as they are returned to a more natural diet.

Naturally, females will not show the kind of color the fish in this photo is showing.

 

Thanks Jack. I'm feeding a variety of dry foods, shelled peas and bloodworm occasionally. I originally received a ratio of 3 males and 4 females. The females all carried at least once each. 3 of the females look like the one in the picture, with the last one showing some blue on her head now. The dominant male is clearing his territory for spawning currently, so we'll see what happens next.

 

There never appeared to a hierarchy amongst the females, with little or no chasing. The dominant male does some chasing of other males at spawning times, otherwise all seems as it should be. As an aside... The dominant male is not the biggest in the tank. Will this eventually result in a battle? Will it be to the death?

 

@Reedfish - Of course you're correct in saying that the males don't color up if they're at the bottom of the pecking order which is why we generally sex by venting. Initially 2 of the 4 females starting holding but as @Broder now stated, each of the 4 females which I sent were carrying babies at some stage, males don't carry, much less are they physically capable of reproducing with other males.

As far as I'm aware, if the fish was holding and now looks like a male, the only thing left to look for is hormones and artificial color enhancers which are often added to the fish foods for the aquarium trade. Anybody know of anything else that could do this?
@Broder - what brand names and product lines are your dried foods?


Edit...

Regarding the fighting between males, depends a lot of the species, on the individual that is most dominant and on the tank set-up (size and decor) and the rest of the hierarchy as to whether or not males will fight to the death. Usually once a pecking order has been established the sub-dominant fish will know not to challenge the more dominant male, passive but dominant males result it tanks with less aggression whereas aggressive dominant males (known also as hyper-dominant males) result in tanks with high aggression levels. Interestingly, putting dominant males in time-out for 3-4 days can sometimes drop their place in the hierarchy and you hopefully then have a less aggressive dominant male.

This information is especially valuable to Tropheus keepers and probably very valid for Mbuna too.

 

Thanks Jack. I'll check the name of the new cichlids pellets I started feeding shortly before the females started changing. It's a budget Chinese brand. Are they required to label hormone supplements in the ingredient list? Can we assume that products labeled as "colour enhancing", may well contain hormones?

 

My pleasure!

Please do so, would be interested to do some research on it.

I'm not sure if they're required to list hormone supplements on the label but they would usually do that as a marketing ploy I believe, and I think they usually label them as "color enhancing" foods. You also get natural color enhancers though, foods using these usually state that they have natural color enhancing aspects as opposed to just color enhancing.

If you're unsure then stop feeding that food as see if they chance back to normal female coloration.

 

The dry foods that I feed are Ocean Nutrition spiraling flakes, Daro flakes, Tetra Discus(think that's what it's called) and this stuff which may be the culprit:


one of the females in colour transition is carrying again. So the change only seems to be cosmetic. Kinda like cross dressing cichlids

 

I'm pretty sure you need to declare/ and disclose hormones on the labelling, and they need to be registered with a relevant govt dept, either DoH, or DA. I have this stuff at home there are no hormones listed on the label. Astaxanthin is an antioxidant, and also used as a food colorant. However as with most labels, there would be a ton of ingredients that are not listed, or listed under some nondescript/ obscure name, so you very seldom know exactly what is in these products.

 

I wonder if there is a way to test for hormones, short of sending the stuff to a lab?

 

no, you'll need to do an lab assay

 

Most of the female Protomelas Stevenii females have now changed to male. I can only see one female left, and even she is starting to get rather blue in the face. To be expected with so many men about I suppose.. I did manage to save 12 fry from the last drop, so will surely get some females from that.

 

looking great! Such brilliant colour! Man you must go through some seriously high volumes of fish food with all the tanks!