Apistogramma Macmasteri pair, no breeding behavior?

[Rocktria]

A few weeks ago I purchased an attempted macmasteri pair (gold form) from an online site, but to my knowledge I don't think im seeing any breeding behavior? They do 'hang out' and swim around each other often, but I don't see behavior that I have seen in the past from other apistos (female changing color, them chasing each other around the tank, etc.). Is the female too juvenile to express this behavior? Or is this pair just a dud? It seems like as of now they just peacefully co-exists. I included pictures of them below for reference.

View attachment IMG_6017.jpgView attachment IMG_6014.jpg

 

[Apistoguy52]

What are they eating?

 

[Rocktria]

So I feed a mix of sinking pellets and frozen baby brine shrimp, I swap those daily

 

[MacZ]

The fish on the left is too young to be safely sexed, due to the domestic breed. They have been bred to have quite static colouration, unless fully grown (like the one on the right) you can't sex them. The females of that colour breed also don't become yellow. they stay exactly the same.

My suggestion is waiting out whether the smaller one is actually a female.
And my second suggestion: Don't breed them, you will not be able to sex them for sale.

 

[Rocktria]

Ahh I see thank you! I didn't realize how hard they are to sex. I'll definitely wait it out to see how they develop! And good point about not being able to sell.

 

[MacZ]

And good point about not being able to sell.

Let's face it, that doesn't stop others from breeding and selling them, but on the other hand, people see the colour breeds as commodities and they are mostly bought by people that either have no experience in keeping fish (or dwarf cichlids in particular) or (and I'm not counting you to this group) they are not really interested in the fish, their behaviour or background but are just like "I love how they look, I want them! No matter what!", buy them, add them to a tank that's not suitable and shortly after that wonder why the fish died/killed each other/produced too many offspring they can't get rid of. People underestimate the responsibilities they get with keeping animals.