# Can you sex my Fire Mouth? Sal pics too....



## stuckinthemiddle (Feb 26, 2008)

Can anyone help me sex my firemouths:

Suspected Male






















































Suspected Female:




























Also, here are some pics of my newly joined sals! I had orginally bought 4 with no pairing and went back and bought 2 more. One of the new ones had very vivid colors and just paired up with the largest male and today I found that they had cleared the sand out of a pot and were hanging out in there. This female is not the biggest, but has the best color. I would have thought that the male would have paired up with largest female, but this was not the case. Does anyone know if the male sal will "swap" mates as another gets ready to spawn like my cons do, or will he stay with his current mate?

I will be taking the other non-paired sals back to the LFS and was thinking about keeping the larger female.

Anyhow, this is my first SAL pair and Im very excited and cant wait to raise the fry!

One last question, what is "line breeding"?

Sal Pics: (my crappy camera does not give her true colors justice.)

female


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## Joels fish (Nov 17, 2007)

Without better pics of the vent I cant say 100%, but it looks to me like your correct in your suspicions. 
Line breeding is for all practical purposes the breeding of fish or other animals for specific traits ie. color or fin shape. usually the offspring that display the desired traits are breed back with a parent to fix the trait and then those offspring are breed to others to maintain those traits. Not exactly an easy thing to do. there is a member here who has linebred firemouths so maybe he'll jump in and explain it better.
Most likely your sals will stay together though it is possible for them to swap mates. Normally however cichlid pairs will just gang up on the odd fish out and make her life miserable.


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## stuckinthemiddle (Feb 26, 2008)

yeah, my photography skills are definately lacking, thats why i posted so many so maybe you could get at least some idea. Also the suspected male is bigger than the suspected female. Will these guys ever pair up, or should I get two more female firemouths when I take the sals back? Also, will a 30 long be big enough for a mating pair of firemouths? If not, then Ill take the female firemouth back as well cause I dont have another empty tank bigger than a 30L.


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

Your going to take the Sals back!?!?!?!!? Dude that's a BEAUTIFUL pair! I would take the Sals over Firemouths anyday! Although that's just me! I am a Salvini freak! I just can't help it  :lol: !!


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## Joels fish (Nov 17, 2007)

It's very possible that they (the FMs) will pair but they would be a forced pair rather than a natural pair. That's not to say they won't make a good pair just that they would be a pair due to lack of options. The typical advice is to get several juvies and let them pair off on their own, but whether you want to try adding more is up to you. I've had many successfull spawns from forced pairs and I don't see the need to add more females if yours are doing fine as is. Like I said though it's up to you. A 30g is fine for a single pair but bigger would always be better. In a 30g it can get crowded fast with a big spawn so you'll want to have a growout tank(or two) handy when the time comes.


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## stuckinthemiddle (Feb 26, 2008)

Im definately keeping the sal pair, but the unpaired sals (4 of them) will go back to the LFS. There isnt enough room!


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## pugwash (Sep 11, 2006)

Just curious, but the Sal's and FM's aren't in the same tank, right?

Because a breeding pair of Sal's will decimate the FM's...


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## stuckinthemiddle (Feb 26, 2008)

They are until this afternoon! Taking the FMs back to the LFS!

My male firemouth normally runs the tank even though he isnt the biggest, but I imagine once they actually start breeding all **** will break loose..... I have heard they are worse than cons.


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

Sal's are very hyper during breeding and they won't back down! They will either kill the intruder or die trying. Salvini are sworn predators. Yes, Sals are worse than cons

Do you possiby have another tank? If you do I would advise you to keep an extra Female Salvini around incase things happen!


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

i had a firemouth and a sal together (both males) and the firemouth kicked the sals ass, this IS NOT normal, but im just saying it can happen, but when there breeding, the sals are goin to win, simple as that lol


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## FishJunki (Jul 20, 2008)

I'm saying your right.


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