Taeniacara candidi pair agression problem

[krib]

I have recently got 2 pairs of T. candidi. One of the males is very aggressive towards the female, and even though the she looks like she is carrying eggs she is running away from the male. I have them separated at the moment but they have visual contact. My questions is how will I know when the female is ready? Do they show a white "spawning tube" when ready like most other cichlids? Any behavioural changes that I can look for? Any help would be appreciated. Here are a few photos, (photos are a week old, female is a lot fatter at the moment)

 

[Chromedome]

That's not a female, it is an immature or hiding male. If you separate them for a couple of weeks, you will see your "female" develop finnage and color of a male.

There is one rule with Taeniacara sexing: "If it isn't yellow, it isn't female."

 

[krib]

Thanks for the answer. That is quite sad news. Of all the female taeniacara photos I found on the web, I saw no yellow ones (except a few brooding mothers), but you sound so sure that I guess you know something. They were separated for a week, and now separated again. Do you think there is any chance that it might be an immature female so that she is not showing mature female coloration?

 

[gerald]

Krib's "female" looks quite young -- maybe just not old enough yet to show any yellow?

 

[Mike Wise]

I think we need to know how large the 'female' fish is. It could be, as Gerald says, too young to sex. I've seen photos of young male T. candidi with barely spade-shaped caudal fins and they still had longer ventral threads than Krib's 'female'. IMHO the lack of yellow color is not really a sex indicator. I've seen many photos of females that were 'fish-belly-white' to start and then turned yellow when breeding/brooding. Yellow color is more an indicator of a female defending eggs/larvae/fry than sex. I think the lengths of the unpaired and ventral fins are a better indicator of sex.

 

[krib]

Thanks a lot for all the answers so far. The "female's" body length (minus the tail) is about 3mm shorter than the male. And the male is about 3.5cm long, 5 cm including the tail. They are really tiny. She sometimes flashes to the male (they are separate but have visual contact) and when she does that her lateral dark line turns into a spot. This is true for both of the females (?) that I have. Not sure if it is an indication of anything though. I keep the other pair together and they seem to get along fine.

 

[Chromedome]

I hope I'm wrong, but experience with three "pairs" back in the early 90s tells me that "females" that look like that will turn male. The species usually skews heavily male, but a lot of them don't show right away, and they don't even show the slightest male characteristics until removed from dominant males. Once isolated, they will turn male within a month. I finally got a real female from a friend, and she was yellow at 2cm.

 

[krib]

Well searching for hours on the web and looking at this post http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/taeniacara-candidi-a-close-shave.12059/ , I have finally come to the conclusion that yellow colour is not default for females, and as in the linked post may be seen only partially even on brooding females. I think mainly ventral fins and chin area are places to look for yellow colour. I also agree with chromedome that the fish could be a male in disguise. I guess only time will tell. Sad thing is the whole shipment was probably males and I don't think we will have another shipment of those anytime soon. I am hoping to at least end up with one female. Will keep you updated.

 

[krib]

Just a quick update on the subject, the female that I was keeping separated (because of the aggression) spawned yesterday. Of course the eggs are not fertilised but she is guarding them anyway. I guess a few days of conditioning was enough and I kept the male away for too long. I hope I can manage the timing next time. By the way she is showing zero yellow colour, so we can say that at least the females of some populations (strains?, localities?) do not necessarily show the yellow. Hope this helps someone. Thanks again for all the comments.