Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ava333 on July 29, 2015, 10:18:54 PM
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Edit: The Membe Deep were 5 months old in June, not 3 months old.
I bought 6 Metriaclima Membe Deep juvenile on about June 15th and have had a blast watching them change this month and a half. So I decided to start a post here so everyone can share my fun.
As most everyone knows, male & female Membe Deep all start out yellow/goldish in color. So asking someone to take their "best shot" at picking out 1 male & 5 females, will get you snickered at. That being said, I did it anyways! Lol!! 😆 And I laughed while I was making the request!
Here's my first pics. Notice the tiny black spec of black at the beginning of the dorsal fin in the first pic (later turned out to be a male).
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Same day pics
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One week later.
First pic is the fish with the black spec. He's starting to hint at male coloring now. 😀
Second pic is still looking like a female. 😅
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At 6 months old, some of my Membe Deep juveniles are looking a little "dingy". The dingy areas seem to come and go depending on their moods as if they are trying to color up. It's fun to watch the get an attitude, turn dingy, then get over it and go back to normal.
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Meet Spike! He's the same one in the pics above labeled "Male". He's not the only one out of the six that's showing male coloration, but he's showing the most changes. If he turns out to be a confused female, I'll change the name. 😂 However, he likes to spend a good bit of his time trying to play kissy-face with my female yellow lab that's 3 times his size. 😅
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Spike @ 6 1/2 months old 😁 He now has a few georgous blue specs on his tail fin and back end of dorsal fin. 😍
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Meet Buffy! At 6 1/2 months old, I have my fingers crossed that she's a female. I might have 2 or 3 females but she's my safest bet at this point. I'm just not sure if the females get "dingy" as they mature. My adult female would turn dingy if she was stressed.
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There's a noticeable difference in color between Spike & Buffy now, even when Spike is not trying to impress someone. 😁
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At 8 months old, there have been some pretty awesome color changes! 😁 The first picture is the dominate male, Spike. He stays a grayish color now. The second picture is Buffy (the smaller fish in the pic) and I'm still hoping she stays pretty and yellow/golden. The third pic could be a sub dominate male, as it's always displaying at Buffy and running from Spike. 😆
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Spike is starting to "color up" now when he's being challenged or when someone else gets to friendly with Buffy!❤️
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Always liked this species. Thanks for sharing.
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Your welcome! I can't wait to see what the next month or so brings. 😀
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Spike is starting to look more gray-blue. 😍 And he turns kinda gray-white with a black mask when he colors up completely (second pic). 💕