Juvenile behaviour

[KtttK]

hi all,

I am new to this forum and must say that this is an excellent forum go to for information on apistos. I have only started keeping dwarf cichlids (have had siamese fighters, corys and rainbow fish). At the moment, I have a pair of blue rams and a group of juvenile apistos.

I bought a group of 10 juvenile apistos from an importer who bred them. The parents are wild caught fish and were labelled as juruensis. I forgot to take a photo of the parents to confirm the ID but will hopefully do so in the near future.

The juveniles are about 3cms in length and I have had them in a 3 foot planted tank for about 2 weeks now. I have noticed that about 3 of them have staked out a territory in the tank and chase away any other juveniles that go into it. My question is: At this age, is it the males or females that are aggressive and territorial? I initially thought that these would be males but have noticed that they have black edges on their ventral fins - and I have read that only females get this, so I am a little confused.

There are two juveniles that are much paler than the rest and have no black edging on the ventrals. They do not seem to exhibit any aggressive behaviour and swim all over the tank. Because of this, I tend to think that they are female - but again, I am not certain.

Any further insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mike Wise]

Both males and females establish & defend territories. Males usually include one of more females in their territory, depending on the species. Your fish are about the right size to start claiming territories, but it may take a few more month before they are sexually mature & start to breed.