Vieja Argentea - Excichlasoma salvini

Q&A About Central American Cichlids

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Salem
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Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:18 pm

Vieja Argentea - Excichlasoma salvini

Post by Salem »

Hi, got several questions kindly waiting for your answers.

First of all I have 4 argentea and 2 salvini in my 500L tank. Salvini are about 3 inches long and Argentea are 5-6 inches long. I'm quite sure about the sexes of my salvinis but having some problem with genders of argenteas. There are 4 of them but all of them seem seperate, still couldnt get any pairs. At what lenght they (both species) can breed and how can I get sure for my argenteas genders ?

Thank you for your precious time.
Greetings from Estambul.
Umit Altnyurt- TR
Pam Chin
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Re: Vieja Argentea - Excichlasoma salvini

Post by Pam Chin »

Hi Salem,

Sounds like a nice tank! Vieja Argentea is really difficult to sex. It is not the size of the fish but their age that is used to determine sexual maturity. They are probably sexually mature at 12 - 16 months, and it sound like your fish would be at least that old. The only accurate way to sex them is to vent them, but it can be difficult if you don't know what you are looking at. You can use the typical cichlid clues, that males are going to be larger, females are going to smaller, males are going to have longer fins and more color, females are more demure, etc etc.

As long as everyone is getting along okay, I would worry much about it, and just let nature take its course. V. argentea is more difficult then most Central American cichlids, and so it make take some time. As your fish mature and get larger some of the more common traits of males will become more evident, such as the hump on their head.

Its a great looking fish and fun to work with, I'll have my fingers crossed for you!

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