Multies breeding

[Shrimpgang]

Are the bigger multies males and smaller females how can you tell which is which. 
 

[DSH OUTDOORS]

You are most likely going to have to wait a bit to tell the difference.  Yes the males get bigger than the females, and mine have a flatter/boxier nose than the females but they are almost full grown.  

Either way, if you have your water buffered to raise your PH and you feed them well you will see little swimming eyeballs soon enough.  They are fun to keep, I have learned the hard way to keep them in a species only tank though.

[Shrimpgang]

Yea I have really hard water so no problems there and I’m feeding live baby brine with krill flakes in between to vary diet, I figured I would be waiting a while before breeding just didn’t know the difference between males and females. Thank you 

[DSH OUTDOORS]

P.S. I started with 8 adults in February, 3 male 5 female.  There are now over 100 in the tank and I just moved them from a 33 long to a 50 low boy.

One of my males is swimming to the left right in front of the ship, you can see he has almost a concave forehead.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@DSH OUTDOORS50 low boy is my dream for my Brevis colony!

[ARMYVET]

@DSH OUTDOORS I really like the scaping done on your tank....that ship looks really great...could you get some better pics of it...pretty please!! 

[ARMYVET]

I love that fish and the 50 gal lowboy is the perfect tank for a colony.  It is one of the top tanks on my dream list for sure.

[Schmorty]

@Shrimpgang

I'm relatively new to multies as well, I got my first group about three months ago. In addition to @DSH OUTDOORS's description, another way to guess at the sex is to observe behavior. I found that the males will carve out territories with a definitive pecking order, and they'll spar with each other at the edges of their territories. The females will pick the male they like and hang out in his territory without getting harassed much. Eventually, the females will dig out pits with shells at the bottom where they'll lay eggs and rear their fry. Once that happens, they start harassing anyone that comes near. 

The attached photo is one of my females guarding her pit. The male she picked lives in the shell in the back left corner in that picture. The males do a little bit of rearranging, but only just enough for one or two shells for them to hide in.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Schmorty
I got right and left switched up 🤭

[mtlarsen1125]

On 6/24/2021 at 2:01 PM, DSH OUTDOORS said:

P.S. I started with 8 adults in February, 3 male 5 female.  There are now over 100 in the tank and I just moved them from a 33 long to a 50 low boy.

One of my males is swimming to the left right in front of the ship, you can see he has almost a concave forehead.

Hilarious, I literally just did the same thing.  Will the numbers eventually plateau?  Or just keep increasing?  I only have multis.