Metriaclima callainos Sexing?

[catalyst]

What are the differences between M & F in Metriaclima callainos?

[fiona]

I've been wondering the same thing 'coz I'm growing up a bunch of young ones (thanks Lungy :^, anyway I found this at http://www.amateurcichlids.com/fish/pseudo_cobalt.shtml:

The male and female P. zebra sp "Cobalt" are similairly colored. Sexing these fish isn't difficult, as the genitalia is easy to see and males quickly develop multiple egg spots. The anal fin of the male is typically more pointed than that of the female. In some geographic variations of the P. zebra "Cobalt" the female is brown in color.

I just looked at mine (about 6cm ATM). Some have been developing an eggspot. I can see that currently some have one and one has two, and the rest have none.

Hope this helps!

[benno]

Hey cool another south australian . Im only 15km up the road from u lol

[Rol&Jas]

Hi Benno and Fiona,

I have three scenarios.

Scenario 1: I had an adult cobalt blue colony a while ago, the male had pointed anal fin with eggspots, the female had no eggspots and rounded anal fin.

Scenario2: Later on I have bought around 20 fry from different breeders, the first female that bred as they were growing up had no eggspots. The second one had a tiny one and rounded fins. Well, I thought that I will sell off my extra males. I have kept the 2 largest males that had pointed anal fin and 2 or 3 eggspots and I have separated the extra ones with more than 1 eggsspots. A few days later one of those separated males with 2-3 eggspots and pointed anal fin was holding eggs (I actually stripped her 14 days later).

Actually, I haven't seen cobalt blue males with more than 3 eggspots here in Australia yet.

Anayway, from Scenario 2 I have arrived to Scenario 3 that I'm confused and sexing them needs more inspection than looking at the anal fin and eggspots.