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In my experience, female Dicrossus may be smaller than males (of the same age) and this is a possible but unreliable way of sexing younger ones.
When they are about 1.5" long, the sexual dimorphism becomes apparent. Until then it is usually impossible to tell.
Also, sorry, I realise I had forgotten to upload a photo showing the difference between the sexes of F.vittata.
Here are a couple of pics of mine. Sorry about the reflections on the first one but it does very clearly show the difference between the nose of the female compared to the males...
This evening I watched one of the pairs of Dicrossus filamentosus preparing to spawn. This is in the busy Rio Negro community tank where they have spawned at least twice before, but the eggs don't tend to last long. In this tank their preferred sites are on Hydrocotyle leucocephala leaves...
My male Farlowella is guarding 51 eggs laid last night :)
I've also got two juveniles at 3.5" and 12 fry at 0.75" at the moment. Survival rates aren't great!
Mine are F.vittata and are easy to sex - the male has a wide hairy nose and the female has a longer thinner smooth nose with a knob on...
Thanks :) the Farlowellas have spawned again this evening too!
Yesterday I also had my new shoal of coffee-bean tetras spawning, though the eggs got gobbled up by Cories. I'd quite like to try breeding some characins - need to get a tank set up for it really.
So, take II. I came back from a few days away over the bank holiday to find my male dead, so I have managed to get another one today. I hope this attempt is more successful!
I took my juvenile Dicrossus and some Moanda to Aqualife today, to trade them in. The Dicrossus were sold to another customer before they were even out of my bag!
I've had a bit of a move around with the adults, so they're no longer in with the Farlowellas. Hopefully they will breed again in...
I've done my water change by siphoning out water as the new water was pumped in - perhaps not quite so efficient but Mrs Dicrossus stayed at her post throughout and the eggs are still intact :)
Examination of my males suggests that both the dominant ones are both the Rio Negro variant. The...
I've found TomC's site now, and the diagrams. This is the best pic I have of my dominant male, and based on the diagrams I think he's a Rio Negro fish (which is good - it's meant to be a Rio Negro tank).
I'll have a look at the other males later when the tank lights are on, and see if the...
Water test results for the 240L this morning:
Temp 26C
TDS 101
Cond 250us/cm
GH 3
KH 0.2
pH <6 (API), 5 (JBL broad range), 5.7 (cheap meter)
NO3 40
It's been a week since I last did a water-change on this heavily stock tank, and I add micro and macro ferts (though not to full EI quantities) so...
Thanks - I'm not sure I've seen TomC's site - could you send me a link?
If you're taking the bike to Aqualife, then you could go to Leyland station which is a bit further from the shop but has a more frequent train service.
There is also an infrequent bus service along the road past Aqualife...
My 240L community tank has lots of catfish (29 Cory, 2 L244 and 2 Brachyrhamdia) and the big shoal of rummy-noses tends to hang around near the substrate. So the surface is probably the safest place, just a few marble hatchets and the ever-present snails to contend with.
I've seen Cories place...
The D.warzeli are getting pretty interested in each other, a little friendly chasing and displaying, much the same sort of thing I've seen before with the D.filamentosus. Hopefully this is a good sign.
They have a choice of spawning sites including plant leaves, bogwood, slate or coconut caves...
I'll summarise my Dicrossus filamentosus story to put the latest development in context:
I originally bought 2 juveniles from Rare Aquatics, I wanted more but they only had 2.
Soon after, I bought 4 more juveniles from Aqualife Leyland, so a total of 6.
These 6 grew up in my 120L Lido tank...