Sex my Zaire Frontosa

[tiger15]

Thanks for the in depth insight. I have kept Burundi, mpimbwe, Samazi and Zaire Tembwe at different time, but never a colony as I like variety and want to leave room for other fish. I can tell the difference among the 4 varieties of Front I kept by the body shape, but not sure I can distinguish the different Zaire varieties as they look the same to me when I picked up my tembwe from a Front breeder who own them all.

One physical attribute of my Zaire is that it has slim waist as if it were fasting despite good appetite. Is it a sign of maleness as ripped females ought to have a plum shape, right.

 

[neutrino]

One physical attribute of my Zaire is that it has slim waist as if it were fasting despite good appetite. Is it a sign of maleness as ripped females ought to have a plum shape, right.

I don't know, ime it varies according to individual. I tend to think it's genes more than gender. I've had chunky males and leaner males, the same with females. Sold several of mine off a year ago or so, kept a breeder trio and the older male I mentioned. One of the females and the male in the trio are chunkier. The older 12 inch male and the smaller female in the trio are leaner. The smaller, leaner female eats more than the chunkier female. The leaner female doesn't fatten up as much as the other when she's getting ready to spawn. I tend to feed pretty lightly, but I don't have to up the food much to get the alpha breeder male chunkier. It takes more food to fatten up the older male, he's always been like that. Of my original group he came from, grown out from juvies, the original alpha male was the chunkiest of the group (he died of a mysterious illness some years ago in an otherwise perfectly healthy tank).

 

[tiger15]

I guess when it comes to Frontosa, normal rules don’t apply. I observed that my Front has the lightest color under ambient light, and darkens after the aquarium light is on. Then depending on mood, it can lighten up or darken further instantly as octopus do.

 

[tiger15]

Another update pic of my Zaire Front 4 year after my first post, still hasn’t grown any appreciable in size. At 8 year old, he or she is still under 11 inch. Judging from the small size, is it a female?

 

[Bigrizo]

Next time you remove it from the tank, get someone to take a photo of the vent area. For females you'll see a prominent bump in front of the anal vent if she has ever dropped her tube. If not, there will still be a bump, larger than males but not as large as a female that produced eggs.