My C. brichardi are Parents!
- Thread starter recDNA
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I have no idea how to sex them. Mine look identical but the female is a little smaller and thinner....at least I think she is the female. I didn't see any spawning behavior at all. The first I knew about any monkey business going on among my denizens was the sight of about 3 dozen tiny tiny free-swimming fry.
My Mbuna are still leaving them alone. I've never seen small fish successfully defend fry in the open in a community tank. I'm amazed. I fear one of these days I'll look over and they'll all be gone.
My Mbuna are still leaving them alone. I've never seen small fish successfully defend fry in the open in a community tank. I'm amazed. I fear one of these days I'll look over and they'll all be gone.
There is no way to visually sex them, generally, except for lenthy observation. I know mine well enough to sex them, but that's only because i've been observing the same two fish for over a year. My male is just slightly larger than his female, but there is very little difference in their markings, coloration, or finnage. You can see a little difference in the marking and color of the cheeks here, but it is mainly the result of the camera flash. There *is* one pretty distinct difference between these two particular fish: The male has a very slight nuchal hump.
Male
Female
These fish are roughly the same age, being no more than 30 days apart. (They came from consecutive clutches of fry.)
Male
Female
These fish are roughly the same age, being no more than 30 days apart. (They came from consecutive clutches of fry.)
recDNA,marmonic-thanks for the help,if the shape of the head is an indication then i would guess my fish is a female.
rec-sorry to hijack your post but i have another question,my daffodil (n.pulcher) is about 3 & 1/2"s if i decide to add few more to pair them up will they kill each other?mine is very aggressive,i really don't want to give it up,i'd like to try and breed it if i can.
thanks,this type of experienced info has been hard to come by,esp on the net.
rec-sorry to hijack your post but i have another question,my daffodil (n.pulcher) is about 3 & 1/2"s if i decide to add few more to pair them up will they kill each other?mine is very aggressive,i really don't want to give it up,i'd like to try and breed it if i can.
thanks,this type of experienced info has been hard to come by,esp on the net.
Why everybody always misspell my nick? 
"harmonics" is pretty common too.
Watch what you take away from my post mostanks, notice I said "these two particular fish" - I've seen quite a few large male N. brichardis and pulchers with no hint of a hump at all. Just keep that in mind when trying to judge by head shape. Actually, keep that in mind for anything at all having to do with fish keeping. Even my advice, which you thoughtfully describe as "experienced info" should not be applied blanketly. There are exeptions to every rule. (Except the rule that says fish have to have water. )
Anyway, for more on sexing, you can make a more acurate judgement by observing their behavior rather than trying to compare body structure. Even when not in pairs, a male's normal behavior will be centered around patroling a territory, (real or assumed) while a female's will be centered around nesting. I have (or at least had) tons of pics of various brichardis/daffodils that support this. Look at the two I posted here. Notice the male is against a higher open water backdrop, while the female is against a lower rock structure backdrop. Of course they both will take breaks to chase other fish around.
(Again, this is not 100% true across the board, but it is common) So, does your daffodil spend most of its time hanging out close to the bottom, digging, or exploring caves and crevices? If so I'd call it female. If it spends more time swimming in open water (especially in any kind of pattern), and nipping at or chasing passer-bys, it's probably male. Of course males and females will do both to a certain extent, so you have to watch over a long enough period of time to tell which behavior is prevalent.
Now as for adding a few more...
Let's just say it would be tricky. My opinion is that you will not have good chances due to the size of the one you have now (We'll call it female untill you know different). It is still *possible* to get a mate for her, if the new additions are of similar size. I do NOT recommend trying this though, because the answer to your main question is YES, unless you have an extremely large tank! Knowing their aggression as I do, it would not be surprising to me to find a large male N. pulcher (or brichardi even moreso) claiming 9sq feet of territory. That would be the entire floor of a 125g tank. If no newly added males accept her, they will probably all fight till death untill only one is left, unless you remove them. If one does accept her, the newly formed pair will kill all the rest. Unless you remove them.
You'd be much better off starting with a new group of 5 to 7 fish, if you're interested in breeding pulchers for the sake of the species and hobby. Even as sub-adults, once a pair forms, that pair will drive the rest away, or kill them if the tank's not big enough. (Unless you remove them. ) My male was given to me by a local breeder in a group of 6 fish. He killed all the rest, all at night, over the next two weeks or so. A month I got another group of 6 from the same breeder, who were from the next batch of fry after the batch the first 6 came from. This time, my male found a female he liked. Great, I thought. Then he *and* the female went about killing the rest. 
If you just want to breed the pulcher you have now, your work's cut out for you, especially if it's in a community tank. If you have another tank that's cycled but has no livestock, you can increase your chances by moving your female over to it and adding the new fish at the same time. There will still violent aggression, but I think you would be more likely to get a pair.
Whatever you decide to do, you have my best wishes. Good luck!
"harmonics" is pretty common too.Watch what you take away from my post mostanks, notice I said "these two particular fish" - I've seen quite a few large male N. brichardis and pulchers with no hint of a hump at all. Just keep that in mind when trying to judge by head shape. Actually, keep that in mind for anything at all having to do with fish keeping. Even my advice, which you thoughtfully describe as "experienced info" should not be applied blanketly. There are exeptions to every rule. (Except the rule that says fish have to have water.
)Anyway, for more on sexing, you can make a more acurate judgement by observing their behavior rather than trying to compare body structure. Even when not in pairs, a male's normal behavior will be centered around patroling a territory, (real or assumed) while a female's will be centered around nesting. I have (or at least had) tons of pics of various brichardis/daffodils that support this. Look at the two I posted here. Notice the male is against a higher open water backdrop, while the female is against a lower rock structure backdrop. Of course they both will take breaks to chase other fish around.
(Again, this is not 100% true across the board, but it is common) So, does your daffodil spend most of its time hanging out close to the bottom, digging, or exploring caves and crevices? If so I'd call it female. If it spends more time swimming in open water (especially in any kind of pattern), and nipping at or chasing passer-bys, it's probably male. Of course males and females will do both to a certain extent, so you have to watch over a long enough period of time to tell which behavior is prevalent.Now as for adding a few more...
Let's just say it would be tricky. My opinion is that you will not have good chances due to the size of the one you have now (We'll call it female untill you know different). It is still *possible* to get a mate for her, if the new additions are of similar size. I do NOT recommend trying this though, because the answer to your main question is YES, unless you have an extremely large tank! Knowing their aggression as I do, it would not be surprising to me to find a large male N. pulcher (or brichardi even moreso) claiming 9sq feet of territory. That would be the entire floor of a 125g tank. If no newly added males accept her, they will probably all fight till death untill only one is left, unless you remove them. If one does accept her, the newly formed pair will kill all the rest. Unless you remove them. You'd be much better off starting with a new group of 5 to 7 fish, if you're interested in breeding pulchers for the sake of the species and hobby. Even as sub-adults, once a pair forms, that pair will drive the rest away, or kill them if the tank's not big enough. (Unless you remove them.
) My male was given to me by a local breeder in a group of 6 fish. He killed all the rest, all at night, over the next two weeks or so. A month I got another group of 6 from the same breeder, who were from the next batch of fry after the batch the first 6 came from. This time, my male found a female he liked. Great, I thought. Then he *and* the female went about killing the rest. If you just want to breed the pulcher you have now, your work's cut out for you, especially if it's in a community tank. If you have another tank that's cycled but has no livestock, you can increase your chances by moving your female over to it and adding the new fish at the same time. There will still violent aggression, but I think you would be more likely to get a pair.
Whatever you decide to do, you have my best wishes. Good luck!
HARMONIC-sorry for the mis spell.lol marmonic what the heck is that 
anyway thanks for all the info,if i had to guess,knowing what you just told me,i'd have to say it's a she.kinda hard to tell since "she is in a tank by "herself".i'm afraid i'm going to have to find her a new home i won't be able to house her w/any other fish w/out fatalities.
i really appreciate all the help,thanks
well it's 5 here gotta go home see ya,thanks again.
anyway thanks for all the info,if i had to guess,knowing what you just told me,i'd have to say it's a she.kinda hard to tell since "she is in a tank by "herself".i'm afraid i'm going to have to find her a new home i won't be able to house her w/any other fish w/out fatalities.
i really appreciate all the help,thanks
well it's 5 here gotta go home see ya,thanks again.
recDNA-yeah she's a handful she was fine in my 29g with a calvus,a.compressiceps and N.nigiventrus.then i got rid of my ca/sa cichlids and put my tangs in the 90g,this is where she went nuts and killed 3 C.macrops,2-dwarf calvus and a few others i moved her back to the 29g solo,after a few weeks there was alot of algea in the tank so i grabbed a clown pleco from the 90g and placed it in the 29g w/the daffodil and she went right after it,i mean she was relentless,the poor pleco tried to shove himself into shell that was obviously too small for him while she tore his tail up 
BIG MISTAKE!! as much as i love this hobby and fish i tell ya she almost got flushed i was sooooo frustrated 
) ALMOST 
why would she go nuts in a bigger tank
she was fine in my 29g with a calvus,a.compressiceps and N.nigiventrus.then i got rid of my ca/sa cichlids and put my tangs in the 90g,this is where she went nuts and killed 3 C.macrops,2-dwarf calvus and a few others i moved her back to the 29g solo,after a few weeks there was alot of algea in the tank so i grabbed a clown pleco from the 90g and placed it in the 29g w/the daffodil and she went right after it,i mean she was relentless,the poor pleco tried to shove himself into shell that was obviously too small for him while she tore his tail up BIG MISTAKE!! as much as i love this hobby and fish i tell ya she almost got flushed i was sooooo frustrated ) ALMOST why would she go nuts in a bigger tank
I love watching the parents patrolling the area and protecting the fry. The babies seem oblivious to the perils of straying but the other fish don't seem to be interested in them. Perhaps they are so small it's not worth the fight with mom and dad to eat them! LOL
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