Umbee questions

[cichlids209]

So I have a group of wc juvis in my 135 grow out and the biggest is about 5.5 inches and I think it’s a female per my other thread . My question is I know for sure I have a male but he’s the smallest of the group. So would the biggest female breed with him or should I just wait until they are bigger to definitely tell the other two I have I think are female as well but not entirely sure . Or should I try to get another wc male or similar size as the big female ?

they all are pretty chill for being one of the most aggressive cichlids out there all just want to eat 24/7 .

filtration wise no problem as I have a eheim 2262 and a fx6 on it .

And they get 80 % wc weekly

I guess I’m asking should I take a chance removing the other two I think are female so the male and female can grow even faster or will that mess up the hierarchy especially if the female doesn’t want that male ?

 

[Kevin@TUIC]

At 5.5" they are just about to the size where sexing them becomes a little easier AND they will start pairing off. IMO I would leave them all together and let them sort themselves out.
One of things that irks me in the hobby is we like to play matchmaker. As in, we select the male & female and put them together in anticipation they will get along and reproduce over and over. While it works pretty often. We also more than not hear/read about the pair beating on each other. This is why putting the fish in groups as juveniles and letting them sort out the hierarchy is always recommended and typically works out to a much stronger bonded pair.
Think of it as humans. Sure we can stick and single male & female together in isolation and they certainly can opt to reproduce with each other but that does not mean they will get along and like each other lol.

 

[troublesum]

This is hard as i have bought many fish from TUIC and respect Kevin but from my experience and this has happened twice with a group of Gold barred Midas from Kevin and a group of red terrors the female grew faster then everyone else and then proceeded to kill everyone. I did buy a group of black nasties again from Kevin and a female emerged as the biggest and i found a smaller male i liked and put him in his own tank and power feed him till he grew to the same size as the female and then i reintroduced them the male ended up hooking up with a smaller female and they both ended up killing the bigger female.

 

[duanes]

Cichlids can be very particular, and ritualistic about choosing mates.
I had a female haitiensus (that outgrew all others) kill 8 males before settling on her preferred consort.
Same with Tomocichla tuba.
In a group of half dozen, she out grew the rest, killed 2 other females, then began seducing the 3 remaining (smaller) males, killed two of them, spawned a with a third, then killed him, but went on to raise lots of fry.

Of course more commonly the males do the most damage because they are "usually" larger, but not always.
When I was determined to spawn grammodes, I bought 6 or 8 juvies at an ACA convention, the male killed all but 1 female almost ovenight

There is never a sure thing. when it comes to the romantic whims and desiderata of cichlids

In my latest venture, I put about a dozen wild caught Andinoacara coerleopunctatus together to grow out in a180 gal tank , all went fine but.....
At 3 years, a 7" alpha male killed all others except 3 females, and now spawns regularly with those 3, during breeding season
Luckily the 180 allows space for the non-spawning, 5 " females to hide among lots of vegtation.

I find I must (and have had) to allow a fairly ruthless scenario to play out during the selection process, to ensure a solid pair bond to be realized.
With haitiensus that meant 8 deaths.
The tuba only 3.
With grammodes 6 .