Lake Malawi Species • electric blue hap question...

[awilson0001]

i went to petsmart and saw two seperate tanks that have one electric blue in each one.

one has a very rich color, metallic blue. the other has little to no blue at all.

the store said they only recieve males for sale, but i keep reading that males are dark blue.

is this other one a female? or can males be a duller color? i would like to buy it if it is a female, but i was wondering what you all think.

[bossfish]

It's hard to be certain without seeing the actual fish but I would guess that most likely the fish with less color is a subdominant male.

[awilson0001]

even when he was in his own tank? i would think he would be colored but maybe not.

[smithc1986]

Saw the same thing at my local petsmart. They say we only get males but it was obvious the other one was female. I think they're sending them to the store in pairs.

[awilson0001]

i am not alone then. i am on the fence as to if i should buy it and try if my male tries to mate

[awilson0001]

even at other stores with multiple blues, all of them had at least some blue you know...

[DJRansome]

Fish are different and I would say they are both males if the duller one is still noticeably blue. In any case to spawn Malawi you would want more than one female. The male is likely to kill a single female because Malawi are harem breeders.

[noki]

Males can be without color, they start that way. If the fish were shipped in the same bag, maybe one fish lost color and has not had time to regain color.

They also hormone them for fake color, and the color wears off. They also have intentionally sold hybrids in the past. A lot of fishy things.

Also Petsmart and their suppliers are not all that bright. They could be mistaken about the fish being male in the first place.

In any event, Petsmart is a crappy source for cichlids. If you like one, get it, but don't think of this as a potential breeding pair.... so many possible negatives.

[awilson0001]

oh i dont think of petsmart as a quality fish store at all. most are skinny or ill looking. my male came from there, but he was and is a nice looking fish.

here he is




but i will also admit that most of my fish are probably not pure. but they are mine and are well kept. i am glad they are happy fish

[Bluetangclan]

Knowing many of the breeders, some of which supply to both a lot of the online stores(what? did you think they bred them themselves?) and the big boxes I can pretty much say they are not accurate on telling you they only get males.

Here is what I have seen at a typical breeder's facility. Breeders have their choice tanks where their good fish are. These are the ones whose fry go to the online and regular stores. They have their own well cared for grow out tanks some of which are in climate controlled rooms and buildings. My friend has his expensive good stuff in a cinder block building with heating and AC and a heavy roof just in case of hurricanes and severe cold weather. Outside there are green houses with rows of big grow out tanks. In addition there are big pools some of which have multiple species(usually not the kind that interbreed). These are more or less left alone so the fish breed and every so often he goes in and nets out the young(typically doesnt waste time stripping unless he happens to net up a holding female but doesnt go out of his way). There are a couple more grow out pools where he tosses the young fish to grow out and this is where the fish that go to big boxes come from. He goes in with a net, nets up those of the right size and sticks them in bags and mails them(its a little more complicated than that but thats the short of it). Most fish at the ages they send, you really cant tell the difference between males and females. I know in my early days of cichlid keeping I found male and female peacocks all the time at Petsmart(oh and I worked at one for a few months while in college too).

[awilson0001]

to add to this sexing thing... both of the "said" males are about 3.5 to 4". so they are adult. so it may very well be female?

i guess i can try. they do have a 14 day return policy.

[smithc1986]

The ones at my local store were in seperate tanks forever and both about 4". I'm 90% sure one was female.

[awilson0001]

since we are talking about males and females, i got another question.

my fish shown above is a male i guess, just by his color. if he is in fact an electric blue hap, why doesn't he have egg spots? is the egg spot thing a myth? he does have one but it is very tiny. poor fish

do egg spots only show on males or can females display them as well? i always read that males have them.

[DJRansome]

The egg spot thing is a myth.

[ls5292]

The egg spot thing is a myth.

does lack of egg spots doesn't indicate female