Think they are 2 mos old-how come they haven't colored up?

[nonamethefish]

It seems like not much as been happening with these two male N. kafuensis'Kayuni' ZAM 97/9. I'm pretty sure they are males as they have an ever so slight blue/red on the sides and the anal fin has a red line in it(hard to see in the photos). However, other than this no colors have appeared. Only two males in a 10 gallon tank. Are KAF normally so slow to color up...or am I just too impatient?

[edlimcp]

Hi

Those two in the pictures are female. The male fish should not have pointed anal fin as indicated on the photo. N. Kafuensis "Kayuni" ZAM 97/9 colors out as soon as roughly 6 weeks.

Hope this helps.

Edwin

[stormhawk]

Yes I would agree with Edwin. Both fish are females.

[nonamethefish]

I would agree, but I'm not so sure as females are supposed to be totally colourless. This shows a little bit of what I'm seeing.

Also, the body proportions(head size etc.) seem to suggest male to me. This is the smaller of the two-the bigger has less colour it seems and is the dominant one.

[edlimcp]

Some females of Notho. species do have some olive green color as they mature, not totally colorless as you mentioned.

Unfortunately, I cannot recall whether my females of N. Kafuensis Kayuni did have these olive green. But, I can tell that the young male of this species color out with first the black rim on the caudal and anal fins and then color on the body.

Hope this helps.

Edwin

[nonamethefish]

Ineteresting on the black rim coming first. I assumed the body color would come first and eventually bleed into the fins. These fish have very light markings on the body resembling those of the males in the photos.

If they are indeed 2 females-better hope that some of the fry I'm raising up turn out to be males!

[edlimcp]

Maybe, the black rim is more obvious than the color on the body for me

Good luck with the fish and tell us more about the outcome.

Edwin

[nonamethefish]

Edit: Ok, took a look through the postings and it turns out these fish are now 2 months old. Seems like if any were late bloomers they'd show that by now.

[nonamethefish]

Looks like I'm in luck. A good number of the fry are males-they've even got the colors coming in nicely. Once you see the difference it is pretty easy but the line can get pretty blurred otherwise.

[edlimcp]

Good to hear that. Now, you can keep the population going.

Good luck.

Edwin

[TyroneGenade]

Also, the body proportions(head size etc.) seem to suggest male to me. This is the smaller of the two-the bigger has less colour it seems and is the dominant one.

I have had a fair amount of experiance with the Kayuni ZAM 97-1 fish and at 8 weeks you can still have fish that look like females suddenly develop colour. IMHO, the fish picutured last is a young male and the 1st pic is of a female.

This type of crazy development is 100% natural for them.

The female have a mild blue sheen to them but no red.

Keep that pair together unless things get rough. Put some peat with them as they should be ready to spawn. I bet the male will colour-up quite a lot then!

Keep well

[nonamethefish]

Not too sure what records I'm keeping but I think the first and the last photo show the same fish.

I may not know if these are females or males...but at least I know if I've got males...

Yearbook photos



Perhaps the grown ones should be "female until proved otherwise"

[stormhawk]

From that yearbook photo, I'd say you have males among them.