Any Heckel Females Out There?????

[Kingdom Come Discus]

Just wondering how many of you out there have seen a female Heckel??? I heard a rumor most Heckels were Males and this is why it is so hard to find a breeding pair.

Seems crazy but.......any input would be welcome.

[TURQ64]

During the fall and winter, I had eggs twice in an all Heckel tank..I also had three smaller Heckel's being wormed, which I suspect are all females..one croaked; no eggs since then..I figure she was the egg layer..I'm still trying to clean the other two up to little avail, but by a domestic female tagging and fighting with them, I still suspect them to be female..I have a pair both doing pre spawn activity, but other than cleaning, nothing else yet...That's all I have that's current, and observed...Gary

[hipflask]

I know what you are getting at here, do they group together as groups of single sex rather than mixed sex when they are netted?......to be honest I dont know but that query has been raised several times without any real evidence one way or tuther. of the 8 I had recently I suspected 3 were female due to behaviour and some tube evidence on two on them. for me it was getting the females to condition that proved to be the problem. the males ate just about everything that went into the tank and conditioned up quite quickly with one of them trying to match up to my big SR green whilst the suspected females were very choosy and somewhat picky with food, hence they never really conditioned.

[ockyra215]

I wonder if its more the fact that when caught they thrown together by size and since more males are larger (theory not fact) that when everyone buys a nice group of large Heckles they in fact get all males? Just a thought? Id be curious to see if anyone has a female heckle breeding in captivity?

[hipflask]

I wonder if its more the fact that when caught they thrown together by size and since more males are larger (theory not fact) that when everyone buys a nice group of large Heckles they in fact get all males? Just a thought? Id be curious to see if anyone has a female heckle breeding in captivity?

quite a few examples of heckel males crossing but I am not aware of any crosses with females.

[ockyra215]

I agree but then again boys will be boys!

[Kingdom Come Discus]

I know there are a lot of Heckel Crosses out there, thus I am hoping to hear from these breeders to see if the Heckel parent is indeed male most of the time. If indeed most of the captive Heckels are males maybe the females just don't acclimate as well and succumb. Maybe Hudson has something he could share here.

[hipflask]

Maybe Hudson has something he could share here.

some females maybe....lol

[Kingdom Come Discus]

I like that one.

some females maybe....lol