# New to astatotilapia latifasciata



## rookie-cichlid1978 (Mar 28, 2017)

Hello all,
New to fishkeeping, cichlids and everything related to the hobby!

Just started a new 125g tank with some crazy awesome help and support from this community. Its a mixed Malawi tank with the Zebra obliquidens as the only rep from Lake Victoria.
Starting the stocking with 7 juveniles of the zebra and so far it has been a great 4 days watching them in the tank. Stocked the first batch of fish and so far these are my observations:
the zebras have the highest activity level (more than the borleyi, maleri and synos - their co-inhabitants) and they are in the upper 1/3rd of the tank mostly and dive bomb every 5 minutes or so. They love the flow created by the FX6 and the Cascade 1500 spray bar in different parts of the tank. three juveniles are now showing egg spots and the other 4 are not. 2 are distinctly larger in size compared to the other 5. so far all of them (all species) are active together and even during feeding the aggression is minimal and very con-specific.

Some initial questions were:
1) is the egg spot a true indication of being a male? The red coloring is not very visible or could be my imagination as well.
2) How much should i focus early on about their insectivore dietary req as mentioned in the species profile? Right now i have all of them on a flake food mix and spirulina as well and a few sinking cichlid pellets from Hikari
3) sexual maturity - what age or time frame is it common? I am going to end up with many males and I want to have an idea about the eventual aggression.

Any other advice for a first time keeper of the zebras would be always appreciated! Thank you!


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

1-no
2-not at all
3-I have males showing red/yellow and females holding at 2-3 inches at this moment. They have held before so I would not be surprised to see one holding at 1.5".

The red/yellow is not at full strength as yet.


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## rookie-cichlid1978 (Mar 28, 2017)

DJRansome said:


> 1-no
> 2-not at all
> 3-I have males showing red/yellow and females holding at 2-3 inches at this moment. They have held before so I would not be surprised to see one holding at 1.5".
> 
> The red/yellow is not at full strength as yet.


Thanks for that clarification. The red/yellow coloring is then the true indication of the male. Do egg spots appear if they are trying to spawn? Could use some help with understanding this part of the anatomy. My last batch were 4in males and I didnt spend much time observing some of these attributes.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The true indication of a male is the vent. You could have a mature male that shows no color due to dominance. Egg spots are just pigment and are present or not present at all times. Color on the spot(s) could be more intense during spawning or fighting or even feeding.


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## rookie-cichlid1978 (Mar 28, 2017)

DJRansome said:


> The true indication of a male is the vent. You could have a mature male that shows no color due to dominance. Egg spots are just pigment and are present or not present at all times. Color on the spot(s) could be more intense during spawning or fighting or even feeding.


Thanks a lot!


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