Paracyprichromis and Cyprichromis

[tootie]

Hi Folks,

I know you can have one variant of cyps and paracyps in the same tank and they won't cross breed.

I have always kept them in different tanks as my worry has been that I may not be able to tell the difference between the female species and therefore wouldn't be 100% of what the fry was.

How can you tell the difference between the two? I'm no good at vent sexing as half the time I can't see any of the holes.

Thanks in advance.

[shon982]

The females look completely different to each other

Paracyp females are brown with different shaped finage compared to silver cyp females

Plus the fry are way different as well, paracyp fry will glow blue when a light is shined on them, cyp fry will have black marking/stripe along the dorsal fin

Paracyp fry also have bright red/pink spot on the gill plate and swim different to lepto fry (just like the adults behave/swim differently as well)

You can safely house both adults of each species together and also raise fry together. They are two very different looking fish when put side by side

Here is a comparison between the two

[cooder]

What shon said ^^^^^^^

[tootie]

Thanks guys - that seems quite straight forward. It has given me ideas for my 4x18x18 fish tank now

[shon982]

No problem

[dogboy]

No proba keeping them together. Paracyps breed against a vertical surface such as a rock or the tank glass. Cyps are open water breeders. So very little chance of cross breeding. Also as others said fry are easy to tell apart

Love them both. Will be a nice tank