Sexing Jack Dempsey

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Semperfi2091

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jan 28, 2017
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Can you guys help me sex my new JD? LFS said Male but I'm second guessing. LFS has been wrong about stuff before. For example, the lady didn't know that Yellow Labs are Mbuna and once recommended a Spotted Green Puffer as a good community fish to go with my daughter's Platys and Mollies.... However, they have good looking fish at reasonable prices and they're the only game in town so I still shop there. Please forgive the junk in the water. These pics were right at feeding time.
 

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I agree with nemesisil. Typically, female JDs have more and larger blue markings on the lower gill covers, while males have few or none. Of course, that's by no means a guarantee, but I believe yours to be female.
 
What size is it at now?


It's true that males don't tend to have blue markings on the lower half of the gill but selective breeding to create more blue colouration has blurred the lines a bit.

To me it looks like a male. Body shape and dotted blue on the face are typical of a male. If it were a female I would expect to see a lot more blue on the lower half of the gill and more squiggles rather than dots and sometimes even solid blue patches plus the dots around the eye are usually smudged together on females.

Can be hard to tell at times. My main comment would be that it isn't common for a male to have blue dots on the lower gill plate but it's is rarer still for a female in the 4"- 6" area in size to have that little blue colouring on the lower Gil plate and no blue squiggles on the face at all.
 
Hello, from what i understand its hard to tell till about 5". A female gill plate is almost solid w/darker marbling & male has more of a pokla dot patern. Hope this helps!
 
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