Hi All..
I have now had a Firemouth tank running for about 2 months and thought it was well worth sharing my experiences to date for any potential Firemouth keepers.
I know 2 months is in no way an "I'm an expert" period of time, but I have learnt an awful lot in this time watching the fish and in the beginning I struggled to get any of my questions on Firemouths answered! The two questions I had were –
· How do I sex them
· When will they pair off
Background
I had decided I wanted a breeding pair of FM’s so after plenty of research on the Internet and forums like this one I chose to adopt the buy many and let them pair of naturally approach.
The tank I’m using is a 36x12x18 inches so I knew my limit in the end would be one pair of FM’s, dither fish and a maintenance fish. So I started with four, 2-3inch FM’s all of which (contrary to the LFS best guess at sexing, he didn’t inspire me with confidence!) when in the tank and adjusting to their new environment I believed were males! Slightly frustrated at this point and hungry for experienced FM Keeper advice I went back to the internet and asked the two questions above hoping that my initial observations would be wrong, what were my initial observations I hear you ask!!!! Lol well –
All four fish showed long pointed fins and more defined pointed heads (a trait described to be more often than not male)
Although I had a dominant fish in the tank there wasn’t major aggression and all fish were able to move over most of the tank eat and explore (this confused me some what as I was expecting males to be very territorial and hound other males)
None showed the slightest bit of courtship! They often moved in a group together!
So what did I learn new from the Net! I learnt that looking for pointed fins is NOT a reliable method of sexing, neither is colour, in fact FM’s can be extremely difficult to sex. At 2-3 inches these guys should be showing signs of pairing! Basically I felt I was going nowhere fast (I was now a month into having introduced the fish into the tank).
So I went back to the LFS as I know one of the guys at the shop and he gave me another 2 FM’s from a different batch (both 1 inch big) which I introduced to the other 4. These two new fish have been in a month and it wasn’t until last night that I noticed behaviour that has finally brought a smile to my face J!
To explain the behaviour I need to explain how the territories have now been setup in the tank – 1 Male has occupied the bottom left of the tank another the bottom right (these two being the most dominant males) and a third the middle back section! These 3 fish the only ones with territories and as you may have guessed are the biggest fish (and colouring up nicely I must add) the smallest of the initial 4 and one of the 2nd batch hide behind a bushy plant and are constantly harassed by the 3 dominant males! And the 3 males all clash from time to time with each other none dare enter the other space! The 6th FM (again second batch) up to now has just stayed in the open between all 3 territories and whilst does get chased its not enough to put it into hiding! This is my definite female J last night I watched her flirt with all 3 males and in turn enter each territory as she wished with them staying close by her! I’m over the moon tbh as this is the first show of affection or chase by any of the males and I was beginning to despair!
So 2 FM’s go back to the lfs tonight I’ve decided they will be both from the initial batch of 4 and the least 2 dominant males and at this stage I will keep the dominant males the definite female and the other little one that sex wise I’m not sure about as it has hidden in the bush ever since day one and only comes out to feed! What I can say is this fish is constantly chased by the definite female!
So hopefully the above will be of some help to new FM keepers in understanding their behaviour because they are very tolerant cichlids as many will know! And I will keep you updated with progress
Moral of the story – Patience is a virtue
Apologies for the long thread *twirlysmi
I have now had a Firemouth tank running for about 2 months and thought it was well worth sharing my experiences to date for any potential Firemouth keepers.
I know 2 months is in no way an "I'm an expert" period of time, but I have learnt an awful lot in this time watching the fish and in the beginning I struggled to get any of my questions on Firemouths answered! The two questions I had were –
· How do I sex them
· When will they pair off
Background
I had decided I wanted a breeding pair of FM’s so after plenty of research on the Internet and forums like this one I chose to adopt the buy many and let them pair of naturally approach.
The tank I’m using is a 36x12x18 inches so I knew my limit in the end would be one pair of FM’s, dither fish and a maintenance fish. So I started with four, 2-3inch FM’s all of which (contrary to the LFS best guess at sexing, he didn’t inspire me with confidence!) when in the tank and adjusting to their new environment I believed were males! Slightly frustrated at this point and hungry for experienced FM Keeper advice I went back to the internet and asked the two questions above hoping that my initial observations would be wrong, what were my initial observations I hear you ask!!!! Lol well –
All four fish showed long pointed fins and more defined pointed heads (a trait described to be more often than not male)
Although I had a dominant fish in the tank there wasn’t major aggression and all fish were able to move over most of the tank eat and explore (this confused me some what as I was expecting males to be very territorial and hound other males)
None showed the slightest bit of courtship! They often moved in a group together!
So what did I learn new from the Net! I learnt that looking for pointed fins is NOT a reliable method of sexing, neither is colour, in fact FM’s can be extremely difficult to sex. At 2-3 inches these guys should be showing signs of pairing! Basically I felt I was going nowhere fast (I was now a month into having introduced the fish into the tank).
So I went back to the LFS as I know one of the guys at the shop and he gave me another 2 FM’s from a different batch (both 1 inch big) which I introduced to the other 4. These two new fish have been in a month and it wasn’t until last night that I noticed behaviour that has finally brought a smile to my face J!
To explain the behaviour I need to explain how the territories have now been setup in the tank – 1 Male has occupied the bottom left of the tank another the bottom right (these two being the most dominant males) and a third the middle back section! These 3 fish the only ones with territories and as you may have guessed are the biggest fish (and colouring up nicely I must add) the smallest of the initial 4 and one of the 2nd batch hide behind a bushy plant and are constantly harassed by the 3 dominant males! And the 3 males all clash from time to time with each other none dare enter the other space! The 6th FM (again second batch) up to now has just stayed in the open between all 3 territories and whilst does get chased its not enough to put it into hiding! This is my definite female J last night I watched her flirt with all 3 males and in turn enter each territory as she wished with them staying close by her! I’m over the moon tbh as this is the first show of affection or chase by any of the males and I was beginning to despair!
So 2 FM’s go back to the lfs tonight I’ve decided they will be both from the initial batch of 4 and the least 2 dominant males and at this stage I will keep the dominant males the definite female and the other little one that sex wise I’m not sure about as it has hidden in the bush ever since day one and only comes out to feed! What I can say is this fish is constantly chased by the definite female!
So hopefully the above will be of some help to new FM keepers in understanding their behaviour because they are very tolerant cichlids as many will know! And I will keep you updated with progress
Moral of the story – Patience is a virtue
Apologies for the long thread *twirlysmi