Re: [RML] colorless G. incisus?

Andrew Boyd (andrew at pcug.org.au)
Fri, 17 Jul 1998 17:03:17 +1000

At 09:53 17/07/98 +1000, Big Al wrote:
>It is most common for young incisus, especially when mixed sexes are placed
>in the one one tank, not to show colour. Generally speaking one of the
>males (assuming there are males in the tank) will be dominant and show some
>if not full colour, the other males will be submissive and not show atall.
>It sometimes takes a 'trained eye' to sex rainbows, esp. when displayed in
>pet stores. :)
>Remove the dominant male and the next most dominant male will display.
>
>BTW mature G. incisus are often known to fight to the death when two males
>are placed together.

If I may concur with my learned colleague and add something to the above in
furtherance ;)

Those species with an alpha or dominant male who "persuedes" the other
males in the tank to show protective female colouration can make sexing the
fish by colour alone difficult. it may sound trite to old-timers but a
trick here is to take the dominant male out and wait until another colours
up, take him out, and so on until no others appear, with the result that
the fishes left in the tank are quite possibly female.

Of course, like Alan says, if you throw all the males together in one tank
of some species then you will only end up with one anyway.

The bottom line is that at least one male and one female are needed to
spawn the fish successfully - it sounds blatently obvious (of Thatcheresque
proportions, actually) but it bears repeating.

Cheers, Andrew
_________________________________________________________________
Andrew Boyd - andrew at pcug.org.au - http://www.tip.net.au/~andrew
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