Calling on your Firemouth experience

[Lovingmytank]

Hi all,

I've got the FM tank up and running now and bought 4 FM's at the weekend all are doing well and seemingly loving their new surroundings!

I picked 4 with the hope of getting a pair and then returning the other 2 back to the LFS, 3 are approx 3 inches in size and the other 2 inches.

Unfortunately I have this horrible feeling all 4 are males, all 4 have pointed dorsals! however having browsed through a number of articles on net about FM's many suggest the method of pointed fins as not being a reliable method of sexing these fish so I turn to the inital characteristics these fish seem to be showing in the hope you'll be able to give me a early indicator!

None of the FM's seem overly aggressive which is great although there is a clear boss in the tank and some chasing around does occur but none of the fish are kept to having to hide away....yet!

out of the 4 only one has the greyish shine and deep red belly to throat colouring the other 3 are all lighter and at best have a slight red colouring under the throat. The boss is one of the lighter coloured FM's

So I pose the question......do the females generally show the same aggression against other FM's when not breeding as males? or would a male generally leave a female alone concentrating on chasing the other males?

I stress again the aggression between all seems minimal and all I quite often see patrolling the tank together!

Having said all of the above the tank looks great and I am keeping them at the mo with 5 Rosy Barbs who all have great character in fact the male Rosy who is about 2 inches isn't phased at all by the addition of the FM's its extremely funny to watch the two breeds interact

I'll post some piccy's of the tank soon all in all I am very happy with the outcome

 

[Fish Friend]

Maybe youll just have to watch them and have a look at their behaviour, cant wait to see those pics

 

[Cutlass]

Everywhere I've read says that FM's generally aren't aggressive unless they're breeding. But I'm in a similar situation as you in that I'm worried I have 2 males. One is larger with very light coloration and almost no redness. The smaller one is a darker grey and has a vivid red coloration under the gills. The larger one is very aggressive to the smaller one, to the point where I had to move the smaller FM to a QT tank to repair fin damage and figure out what to do. The larger FM leaves my Clown Pleco alone, and I'm wondering if adding more fish (a pair of Otos maybe?) would teach the larger FM to get along with other fish.

I guess I didn't answer your question, but I can say that I'm similarly curious about sexing these fish.

 

[Lovingmytank]

Update on the situ -

After consulting even more articles on the Net concerning FM's I am sure now I do have 4 Males! even at 2-3 inches in size they should start to pair off anyway cutting a long story short....

I popped back to the LFS yesterday and explained my situation they kindly gave me another 2 FM's from a new batch they have to help me in my quest! these fish are on loan LOL so when I get a pair they go back to the shop no money exchanged hands! how good is that!