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C.Furcifer probably "karilani"

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14K views 59 replies 15 participants last post by  PrinceG  
#1 ·
Hi evereyone! :)

I recently set up a 5 feet tank with 8 C. Furcifer. My first thought was to insert 2 males and 6 females or more.So I orderd these guys and since yesterday they are swiming in my tank!
They are about 2 inches and all of them look the same.
I wonder if it is possible to recognise who is the male at this size??Are the male's fins bigger at this size or will be later??Should i watch them and understand it by their behaviour?? :-?
I would also like to know if there is a "protein limit" at the food i feed them.
I read that i should feed spiroulina flakes mostly and frozen mysis or krill.

Thanks in advance.Any suggestion could be useful! :)
 
N
#2 ·
while not an expert on c Furcifer, I do have some juvies in my 150. My largest is about 4 inches long, and there is still not any definitive signs of sex. From the advice I was given a while back, NLS is fine to feed them. I also augment this with some freeze dried mysis shrimp. I really can't wait to see the males color up! They have been in my tank for 3 months now and seem happy.

Good luck with yours, and I hope to see pics.
 
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#3 ·
males won't begin to get the long pec fins till they hut around 5 to 7 inch. There really is no way of telling male from female at that size. One way to try and guess is that if you can see the fry when your buying them and they are all from the same batch, most of the time the males are already a bit larger. This is not guaranteed though.

NLS is fine I have always and still use it. They are easy to overfeed and you can cause the to get bloat. There is no need to supplement it with any other food. It may just cause you to wind up over feeding them.
 
J
#4 ·
I can tell the sex at 2.5 inch usually. At the size your saying you should definetly be able to tell, males will have longer ventral fins. You said they are very new too your tank so it might take them alittle bit to show color.
2.5inch
Image

3.5inch
Image

4.5inch
Image

if you could post some pics i could give you a better guess as too ratio
 
#5 ·
Thanks a lot for the iformation!
So i should be patient.

Don't you think that variety to their diet would have better results at fish's health and colour??
I ask because unfortunately NLS is not imported in my country yet.That's why i asked about the "protein limit" of the food because i have to decide which quality flake foods i should buy.

Some fotos:

Image


Image


Image


I hope i gave them all the space they need.Any suggestion or further information is always pleasant.
 
#7 ·
Jolly cichlids said:
I can tell the sex at 2.5 inch usually. At the size your saying you should definetly be able to tell, males will have longer ventral fins. You said they are very new too your tank so it might take them alittle bit to show color.
2.5inch
Image
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
What kind of tape measure are you using :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Those are not 2.5" :thumb:
 
#9 ·
Furcifer158 said:
males won't begin to get the long pec fins till they hut around 5 to 7 inch. There really is no way of telling male from female at that size. One way to try and guess is that if you can see the fry when your buying them and they are all from the same batch, most of the time the males are already a bit larger. This is not guaranteed though.

NLS is fine I have always and still use it. They are easy to overfeed and you can cause the to get bloat. There is no need to supplement it with any other food. It may just cause you to wind up over feeding them.
Click to expand...
Agreed, males tend to be more aggressive and a bit larger (possibly because they fight for more food), but they usually don't look different until they are 3.5" or more. Sometimes, you'll even get subdominant stealth males that will repress their color and not have full fin growth in order to keep clear of the early developing aggressive males. They'll even school with the females. In addition to looking for the ventral fin growth, you can also look at the anal fin as it starts to get pointed in the males.

IME, when I overfed and killed my featherfins (did this more than I care to admit when I was new to the genus) it wasn't bloat, but I think an intestinal blockage. I overfed high protein foods like frozen mysis to try and get them to grow faster and they couldn't clear it through their digestive tract. They would blow up like balloons and it was painful to look at them all stretched to the point of bursting. Since then, whenever I feed mysis (1x or 2x per week) I either fast them the next day or feed them spirulina flakes or pellets. Seems to clear their system and I haven't had this problem in a while.
 
N
#10 ·
Charlutz said:
Furcifer158 said:
males won't begin to get the long pec fins till they hut around 5 to 7 inch. There really is no way of telling male from female at that size. One way to try and guess is that if you can see the fry when your buying them and they are all from the same batch, most of the time the males are already a bit larger. This is not guaranteed though.

NLS is fine I have always and still use it. They are easy to overfeed and you can cause the to get bloat. There is no need to supplement it with any other food. It may just cause you to wind up over feeding them.
Click to expand...
Agreed, males tend to be more aggressive and a bit larger (possibly because they fight for more food), but they usually don't look different until they are 3.5" or more. Sometimes, you'll even get subdominant stealth males that will repress their color and not have full fin growth in order to keep clear of the early developing aggressive males. They'll even school with the females. In addition to looking for the ventral fin growth, you can also look at the anal fin as it starts to get pointed in the males. IME, when I overfed and killed my featherfins (did this more than I care to admit when I was new to the genus) it wasn't bloat, but I think an intestinal blockage. I overfed high protein foods like frozen mysis to try and get them to grow faster and they couldn't clear it through their digestive tract. They would blow up like balloons and it was painful to look at them all stretched to the point of bursting. Since then, whenever I feed mysis (1x or 2x per week) I either fast them the next day or feed them spirulina flakes or pellets. Seems to clear their system and I haven't had this problem in a while.
Click to expand...
Plus one regarding the anal fin, this is usually the first indication of males.
Another thing you can do, is shine a flashlight on the fish and see if there are any reflective, colourfull scales (males). Your still quite a way from that though. Patience is key with these guys.
 
#11 ·
Thanks a lot all of you once again!

Furcifer158 In the future if i finally decide to keep two males coloured up i will probably place the rocks in the middle of the tank so they will avoid seeing each other!

For their diet i plan to give 2 quality spiroulina flake food mysis evrey 10 days (1 day before i do water change) and i might order NLS.
 
#12 ·
PrinceG said:
Thanks a lot all of you once again!

Furcifer158 In the future if i finally decide to keep two males coloured up i will probably place the rocks in the middle of the tank so they will avoid seeing each other!

For their diet i plan to give 2 quality spiroulina flake food mysis evrey 10 days (1 day before i do water change) and i might order NLS.
Click to expand...
Sounds like your all ready to keep some amazing fish.

If you can I would order the NLS, I am bias to it like most people on this forum :D

Keeps us updated on there progress :thumb:
 
#14 ·
I feed my furcifer flakes mostly ( with mysis occasionally).... I use a product here in the US so I can't help ya but mine breed fine on flake. Just find a flake with good quality ingredients and you should be fine. They aren't easy to bloat up.... but they can bloat like Charlie stated.

A flake that comes to mind that you can probably find in your country is Sera Flora.
 
#18 ·
Hi everyone!
Once again i have some questions.
My fish are ok and i wish i had more time to observe them even more.
The problem is that there is a lot of aggressiveness in the tank.After feeding these guys they stay close to the bottom of the tank and start chasing each other.
So if males are the most aggresive i am sure that i have more than 4!I think that this is a huge problem. :( Is n't it??????
4 of the aggressive fish are showing a little black colour in the end of their fins.
Should i change some of them with other fish that maybe are female?or not yet?
 
M
#19 ·
Not yet. Let the kids play. I would wait to see what males look better than the others. Then use the best looking 2. Split the tank in halve with rocks with hiding spots. The most dominant ones once they finish the (king of the hill game) may actually start moving some sand and every now and then do a dance. I have one a lil bigger than yours doing the tail shake. When he does this his fins get darker. You still can have a male acting like a female just to avoid fights or to steal sand like mentioned earlier till a very older age. So it's still to early to make changes. But dark fins are a good sign of it being a male.
 
#23 ·
My tank is 5 feet isn't it small to add more fish?
Myrock belive me money don't allow me to do anything :p but i love this hobby so much that i will spend some more.Also except from money these fish are really hard to find them here.I have to order them again from Europe.
The store i ordered them have still 4 fish.I'll wait about 3 more weeks and then trade mine with them.

P.S. I paid about 250 dollars for 8 fish.It's about 31,2 for a fish. How much do you guys buy furcifer there???
 
M
#24 ·
At that size $18 - 22 each. But then you pay for shipping too. At the local LFS who knows. You dont see them often. At 2 inches they should be ok in a tank that size for now. I had nine in a 135 gallon 5 males 4 females at 4-5 inches. I had 2 dominant males on each side. The other males would color up every now and then but when they needed sand they would act like a female, turn circles with one of the males and steal sand for digestion. lol. That kept my 2 dom. males colored up a lot.
 
#25 ·
Hi everyone!
Its been 3 months now since i last introduce my fish in the tank and everything it's ok!
There are 3 males for sure!One of them has started to colour up more than the others. :)
I have a question for you guys.
Have you ever heard or read about furcifer eating their own poop???Some of my fish do it occasionally.
I feed them ocean nutricion spiroulina flakes and vegi flakes 3 more quality spiroulina and vegi flake food and mysis once a week.
Any suggestions :-?
 
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