Altolamprologus sexing

[gianniz]

I have some juvi's and some of them are showing white little thing coming out of its bottom.

Does this mean they are girls? or do boys have small egg tubes?

my fish are around 5-4cm

thanks

[chorrylan]

errr ..... that sounds more like it has worms

all the alto comps and alto calvus I've ever kept (and noticed) have had their egg tubes body coloured, or slightly pinker than their body colour, never white.

I've had fish I believed to be males showing egg tubes but it's possible they were just very butch females (the colony was too big to confirm their gender with absolute certainty)

[leamos]

Sexing at that size is hard, as sub adults the males tend to be bigger, have higher bodies and a more pronounced ''scooped'' forehead. Females are more streamline and their foreheads are flatter. The only definative way is to vent them, females will have a larger vent compared to a male of the same size.

[gianniz]

hope its not worms i only feed hikari stuff and i have 25watt uv for disease control.

the colour wise i was just guessing. When i said egg tube I meant tiny 0.02mm size thingy Its virtually invisible but when you look really carefully it seems most if not all have this tiny tube, some ever so slightly bigger When i had them before they started to breed around this size 4-5cm.

I noticed 3 bigger ones kinda established its territory and the smaller ones aren't, but those 3 still have the tube thingy. So my question is

Do both male and female have egg tube? (assuming females is bigger)

[lacichlid]

Female tube is a lot thicker and easier to see than male, male tube (or what ever you call) is just like a small needle's end, when you see the female tube comes out longer, means she is not far away from breeding. Hope it helps

[rowie]

the males tube will come to a point the females tube is rounded and wider at the base hope this helps

[gianniz]

thanks rowie that helped. but i think i am pretty certain of their sex now by size and territorial behaviour.