CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Hi Denny,

Welcome to the fish-a-holics anonymous program So you actually bought a "breeding" pair? or you raised the oscars yourself?

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I bought a breeding pair which had lip-locked in the shop but unfortunately the female didn`t survive. So i have bought a female the same size and colour and they both seem happy together. They swim side by side ALL the time apart from feeding when they seem to "argue" over food. I just sit for hours at my fish. Theyre great!

Hi Denny,

Great to hear I'm not the only psycho one staring at fish for hours on end!
How did you know the fish you bought was really a Female? Why did your other "female" die? Did it get killed by your male?

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

I`m not really sure how it died, but it had a wound on its eye so it was probably attacked by the male. I heard splashing in the night and the next morning i had a corpse. The people in the shop said they had bred many before and i noticed that when the owner went top net the fish, the both hid together in the plants at the back of the tank. This and the fact they were the only two that had lip-locked maid me think the shop owner was right but i wont be sure till they`re bigger i guess!

oh and the new female i bought was "supposedly" sexed by a pro breeder. But they could have told me lies.

Hi Denny,

Well, if they didn't lie to you and a "professional breeder" really did sex it then you can be pretty confident you have a female. You just have to know if you can trust them or not. Anyway, how big are your oscars right now? Also, two males may liplock in a fight. Usually male-male liplock tournaments last longer and are more vicious. Plus they don't just go for liplocks they bite each other on the sides too. But the size of your oscars is important when it comes to breeding etc...measure from head to end of tail...in inches...

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

The male is just over 6inches and the female is just under 6inches

Hi Denny,

You can try sexing them by venting. Also, keep on feeding them a lot so they grow fast. They usually get to 8" or so before they start breeding.

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Hi, what do you meen by "venting"? They seem to be bigger now but it could just be my eagerness!!!
Thankx for all your help by the way u guys are great!

Denny

Hi Denny,

Venting refers to sexing fish by looking at their "tubes", the genital papillae. The female's called the ovipositor is considerably wider in diameter and more oval shaped than the male's tube. (Basically because it needs to p*** 2mm eggs through there).



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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Time to do some modifications I believe.
Chuck

Too bad there isn't a context sensitive sensoring. It seems to pick out the middle of words. It used to do that on the babycenter.com chatroom too...hmmm


Jen

Heheh, Hey Chuck, if you get around to it before I do, take off that stupid ban on the word *** it's a pain in the ***

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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Done dealeo!

Ok, cool, that's better

Joe
www.cichlidfish.com