Can You Sex My Texas?

[GShorty1981]

In my 180g (6ftx2ftx2ft) I have a 6" H.Carpintis (Green Texas) he is housed with the following...

1 x Female Jack Dempsey
2 x Female Pink Convicts
3 x Severum (1 male Rotkeil, 1 male Gold, 1 female Green)
1 x Salvini (to little to sex)
1 x Female Blood Parrot
(soon to add a shoal of Silver Dollars)

Can you sex him/her for me? I have a feeling its Female because it has not tried to breed with anything in the 6 months I have owned it.

 

[star4]

I would say female, not always a good indicator but the spot on the tail is normally visible on females and not on males, and she has a sloping head without a hump like males get at that size. Cracking texas you have lovely colouration too, I love these fish. Looking at the pics though I think your rotkeil might be female from the lack of spots on the face, if you get another pic I will happily have a look for you.

 

[star4]

Just noticed you are planning on silver dollars, personally with texas not a good idea, I added 2 rescue dollars to my tank, within 30 seconds my texans were taking scales off the dollars, it may have been a one off but unless you have another tank to move the dollars too if the texas takes a dislike to them I wouldnt do it.

Pic of one of my males. Its so nice to see someone else with a texas

 

[GShorty1981]

Thanks for your response, the Rotkeil deffo a male, hes just not quite sexually mature (under 5") yet so the spotting is not so obvious, but deffo there

I had a feeling the Tex was female, because its so placid and hasn't attempted to breed with the numerous other females of other species in the tank

I thought the Female Parrot would of tried to breed with it, because i had to take her out of my 120g because she kept trying to breed with everything, even tarting it with my Electric Blue Hap...trying to lay eggs...then the hap would just eat them as she laid them! lol

When she tried to breed with my monster Parrot (7" bull male) all hell broke loose so i dumped her in the 180

 

[star4]

She is very pretty. I found my female texas to be more aggressive than the males, just shows how different they can be

 

[GShorty1981]

Yeh always down to the individual i find, all mine are pretty chilled out, i suppose theres always time for them to snap

I'm growing out a male Green terror in my African tank (hes only 1.5") but eating well, i'm hoping he dont turn into a nutter (although deep down, a nutty green terror is cool ) so i can put him in the 180g with everything else.

If he don't work i might go with a Lutino Oscar later down the road, kinda depends on how nasty my Salvini gets also, hes pretty ballsy my lil mini Guapote!

 

[star4]

Wow sounds like you have a real cool collection of fish, I have 2 oscars, tigers, in seperate tanks, never had a salvini its on the list

 

[GShorty1981]

Salvinis are great fish, sorta like a mini Jaguar

How would a Oscar (on average) fit in with my stock? I kept two 10 years ago, but only with a Sailfin pleco.

If i do get one, i will wait until the Salvini has some size to him/her because i have had it 2 months and havnt seen much growth yet, the Oscars i had 10 years ago grew like crazy!

I saw some Dovii's down the lfs the other day, definitely a fish i would like to keep in the future (on its own)...speaking of Parachromis I did have a Jaguar with this stock but he died randomly after a few months, not sure why.

 

[star4]

My Texas are in a tank next to a tank with an oscar and the amount of flaring and face pulling that goes on between them is horrific, I wouldnt add my oscar with my texas. Its one of those try it and see situations though, I have had severums in with the texas without problems and a JD.

Out of interst where did you get your rotkeil from?

 

[GShorty1981]

Heres the Rotkeil we discussed earlier

I got my Rotkeils from my lfs, i had 12 babys originally, sold 9 on and grew up 5, i have 7 subadult Sevs in my house in total (3 rotkeil, 1 red spot, 2 gold and 1 green)

 

[star4]

Oh yes he is definetly a little boy, very nice one too, you dont see them in LFS very often.

 

[GShorty1981]

Yeh thats why I grabbed so many wanted to make sure my mates got some to because none of us had seen them before in real life

So tempting when you see unusual stuff...even when you dont have the space, im just glad i resisted the Wolf/Dovi'i lol

 

[star4]

I have the opposite problem I am overrun with Rotkeils, I must admit I have a huge yearning for a jag, maybe one day, there is a monster wolffish for sale on ac, its just

 

[GShorty1981]

Yep Wolf Cichlids are the ultimate for me, probably need a 300g for a pair tho!

Did you breed your rotkeils then? I actually found most of mine hard to shift because people didnt know what they are!

I saw some nice Orinocco FO Notatus in the lfs yesterday also...so tempted to add some of them along with Appendiculatus and Severus to my Sev collection lol, but again resisted, im gonna be overstocked once my lot have grown up anyway, but i kinda want that to spread out aggression, not looking forward to the bigger water changes tho!