# Green Terror - Male or Female?



## Tejay

Hi all,

I imagine you are asked this question all the time so apologies in advance.

I purchased my first "pair" of Green Terrors from the pet shop recently, however I have doubts as to whether the one below is female.
They seem to fight quite often and I caught them today locking their jaws together which made me think...

Does anyone know if this is a male or female?










Also they will demolish worms and feeder fish but refuse to eat pallets which I am confused about as that is what they were fed at the pet shop. They have only been in the tank for 4 days; does anyone have any tips there?

Thanks for your help.

Tejay


----------



## cprings

Looks male to me. Additional pictures could help. How big are they? Seems like they are spoiled on the worms/feeders. Try to ween them off the live food and fast them for a couple days and try the pellets again. Once they accept the pellets, only use the worms and feeders as an occasional treat. Also you may want to try a different pellet.


----------



## Tejay

Hi Cprings,

Thank you for your time.

Upon further research I have found out the female should have a breeding tube - I have taken further photos to potentially show this.
However I must point out this particular fish has been having white excrements lately, I assume this is not what the photo is showing.



















The male is about 6 inches and the female about 4 inches long.
This photo gives a better perspective of them both together;










Thanks for the advice on the feeder fish and worms. I naively purchased the feeder fish when I got these two (since learnt about diseases etc) and they demolished the whole lot of them in two days. I think I will keep putting pellets in the tank but not feed them anything else until they eat them, the pet shop insisted it was the same pellets they were been feed there so they must eat them.

Thanks

Tejay


----------



## cprings

Based on those pics. I would say female hah. Definitely looks like her egg/breeding tube. Sorry about that. GT's can be tough to sex when they are young. That first pic made the dorsal look deceivingly long. I would say you have a great looking pair. Make sure not to keep feeding the pellets if they are not eating them. Left over food will start to decompose and can pollute the tank. Try to fast them for a day or two and perform a water change to get them feeling healthy and hungry before attempting the pellets again.


----------



## Tejay

Thanks cprings - yes I can see how it is exceptionally difficult to determine their sex.
When I learnt/paid attention to the breeding tube it became quite obvious to me as well (at least I hope so!).
It was impossible to see that from the first pic I posted.

On another note, because these two seem to enjoy ripping up the plants every day and dig holes everywhere, I have had to fix the tank up each day and have taken all the old pellets out so that didn't happen. In addition I noticed the male started eating a few of the pellets today (he has been out of feeder fish for 2 days now).

Hopefully these fish eating their pellets coincides with me securing the plants with rocks so we can all move on and be a bit more relaxed 

Once again, thanks for your help.


----------



## Tejay

Well female... she laid eggs about 2 days ago!!


----------



## Ninjawizard

Congrats on the egg laying now you know for sure! Your male looks awesome! Just out curiosity do female green terrors always show their breeding tube and at what size do you first notice it? I have a juvie green terror at 2 inches and I am like dying to know whether its going to be a male or female. Just waiting for it to grow a little bigger ...


----------



## Tejay

Thanks Ninjawizard 
I just got these two from the fish shop about 4 weeks ago and have been on a sharp learning curve since then!
Because of that I am probably not the best person to answer your question... at first I didn't notice the breeding tube at all, but when she would swim around and move her fins you would get a glimpse at the right angle, so I would suggest you look closely, but I can't tell you what age it first appears. Also the dorsal fin on the female doesn't seem to extend beyond the tail, with the male it is a bit longer.

A few things I have found so far if it helps anyone;
1. My Green Terror's bred within hours of introducing other fish to the tank - they had the tank to their own for a few weeks and showed signs of mating but this seemed to give them the hurry up they needed (now I have to separate them all haha).
2. I was quite worried about the female having worms/bloat as she had white faeces, I believe this is actually what she does when breeding - I have read on other forms that people panicked and started medicating (and or separating them), so some people might have jumped the gun there.
3. I was doing frequent water changes (sometimes twice a day) to control Ammonia and Nitrite whilst the tank was cycling (newbie mistake) - maybe the water changes encouraged them as well.
3. Definitely separate the male and other fish from the female - she will "terrorise" them, I have been bitten a few times now and scared to put my hand into her section to fix things up!!

Anyway, probably a lot of false truths about, but just some observations of mine that might help.

Good luck, its quite interesting 

Tejay


----------



## Ponera

good troll is good


----------

