As many of you know from my posting "Preacherboy's 125" tank
I have 13 Msobo Deeps.

The problem is, they are now reaching 3+ inches and out of the 13
Msobos, none have even began to reveal their sexual identities!

What's the odds of having 13 Msobos coming from the same parents ending
up being all females?

Some of you have said that your male Msobos starting changing colors as
early as 2 inches!

What's going on?

Any thoughts or am I just being my normal self as a person of little patience?

I would also think one of them would be showing some colour by now...That's pretty strange...Someone should be in charge...

What's in the tank with them?

I find my male very timid in comparison with other species I've housed him with. I'm seriously considering moving them to a 40G breeder of their own to get them to breed. He just can't stand up to the dominant male white top, and seems like a very "nervous" fish. (Meanwhile the White tops are in the same tank and won't stop breeding...)

I also think my male is very intimidated by my female Msobos...

Kim

Thanks Kim!

I have...

A full grown pair of Red Empress;
Pair of Lithobates
6 Yellow Labs, most fully grown adults
14 F1 Mdoka peacocks
Trio of Vic 44's(I think)
13 Ps. Msobo Deeps
4 botia

The Msobo pretty much hold their own in the tank and seem to be neither aggressive towards others or much towards themselves.

I just can't believe out of 13 Msobos, not a one of them have turned by now!

I am truly disappointed in these fish at this point!

Maybe all females? I've had stranger things happen. Then you have to find a large male to go in with all those females... it's tough when the fish are full adult size. (just ask how I know...) :blink:

Okay, I'll bite! fishy

How do you know, Lisa? Hmmmm Now this should be good!

Ok, way back when.... a long time ago in a galaxy far far away....

ooops wrong story.

Several years ago I bought a nice group of young Labeotropheus fuelleborni. They grew and grew and spawned all the time. However, I NEVER got any fry. Now after about a year and a half of this, I notice that ALL the fish were holding at the same time. :FAINTLY:

So, I KNEW I had all females in the group. I was more than a little surprised and annoyed. Generally if I get a one sex thing in my fish, it's all males. So, then began the search to find a large male fuelleborni. That was fun too. It took me many months to find a 3/4 grown one that I knew was male. I added him to the group and the females kept him in check until he finally got as big as they were. That's when I finally got fry!

Sounds like you have the luck that I do sometimes!

Oh well, I'm not going to give up on them yet!

If I can't locate a very nice male specimen around here locally, then
I will see if I can pick up one at the OCA in November!

Thanks for your help, Lisa and everybody!

Too bad you're not around here. There's a few males starting to colour up in the local petstore. :)

They could be hiding their male coloration due to larger tank mates?

I agree, Mike. The males seem pretty timid to me...

The females are like roller derby girls. blinky

Kim

Over the holiday weekend, I began to see some color changes in a few of
the Msobos as they were fighting with one another!

But as soon as the fighting is over, its back to the orange color form again!

Still waiting patiently for them, however, and I suppose it could be the much
larger tankmates that are in with them!

However, they don't back down from anyone in the tank and I have some pretty
large fish in there!

I have males at 1'' that are just starting to show some color [shinny top fin ]. And then i have 4'' male with no color . Just a spot on there side to show that they are males.
I love Msobo Deeps
I am always in the market for more !!!

What I thought. Color will come soon!

Mike I agree . Give it a little time one will pull out of the pack. Mine is in the all male tank and is not nearly the boss. He never goes yellow but turns a pale blue gray when stressed, by the more dominate fish..

I'm trying to be patient, but it ain't easy!

It's like the man who was praying for patience and said, "Lord,
give me patience and give it to me now!"

I hope you have better luck than I'm having once yours start spawning. Mine have torn the entire tank apart, and I lost one holding female. I knew he was going to spawn with all 4 at once because every one of them had dropped tubes. As the spawning started, the female aggression worsened.

One down, 3 left...1 still holding, one swallowed the eggs (probably due to the aggression) and one is still waiting in line to spawn with him. And he has turned into the devil...So much for Mr. Nice Guy... blinky

Sorry to hear that, Kim!

I do believe though that I am finally starting to see a few color changes
in my Ps. Msobos.

Obviously, none of my females have revealed themselves in holding, but
I'm waiting for all hell to break loose in that tank soon!

Well, I'm hoping you will have a good high female ratio...I'm going to have to look for some more of them, and I think I need to find some that are similar in size to the ones I have. They are just brutal. The one who was holding isn't holding anymore - we went to remove her from the tank this weekend and realized she had lost them somehow. Watching the tank, it's hard to tell whether the aggression is coming from the females or just that the male is too fulll of himself. It's total chaos. The White tops are just trying to stay out of the way. I've never witnessed such "high stress" at breeding time other than with those auratus Pete used to keep.