mr funktastic
Aquarium Advice Addict
ok so i have 2 cobalts in my tank and i was wondering if anyone know how to sex them . i took 2 decent pictures of them in hopes of identifying them. any ideas are welcome. thanks in advance 
can u sex my cichlid... pretty please? lol
- Thread starter mr funktastic
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Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
Now you are asking ALOT. lol Cobalts are difficult to sex due to the false egg spots and similarities between the two. We sexed ours easily because we only have two and one was holding. lol
Pulled from Malawi Mayhem (which you probably already read):
Males and females of this species look very much alike; however, mature males will tend to have a more vibrant blue, a steeper forehead, more eggspots, pointier fins and generally, become larger in size.
I did notice that our male has a brighter blue coloration compared to the female. It also has more egg spots, but that is hard to determine since what are you comparing it to? But based on what I can see, I would say that from the bottom pic, the one on the right appears to be female whereas the one on the left appears male. BUT, don't hold me to that. Cobalts are VERY difficult to sex, even harder than labs.
Have you tried venting?
Pulled from Malawi Mayhem (which you probably already read):
Males and females of this species look very much alike; however, mature males will tend to have a more vibrant blue, a steeper forehead, more eggspots, pointier fins and generally, become larger in size.
I did notice that our male has a brighter blue coloration compared to the female. It also has more egg spots, but that is hard to determine since what are you comparing it to? But based on what I can see, I would say that from the bottom pic, the one on the right appears to be female whereas the one on the left appears male. BUT, don't hold me to that. Cobalts are VERY difficult to sex, even harder than labs.
Have you tried venting?
OP
OP
mr funktastic
Aquarium Advice Addict
i am not a big fan of looking at the fishes bum for the venting lol and plus i cant catch the little buggers but thanks for the guess. the only thing i am worried about is that one is obviously a male but the other may appear to be a female even though it is just a less dominant male. the less dominant one would have less colour and be smaller becasue he would be shunted to the side all the time. they are jerks in my tank to lol. but i love the colour and as you can see they have very nice vibrant colour. and yes fishy i had already read that but thankyour for putting it. i tried myself but just dont have the eye to make out the difference.
G
Guest
Guest
when i rearranged my tank i netted out all my cichlids and attempt to vent them... lol... it was a joke! After looking at all of them for a while i felt like i was probably really stressing them out and finally gave up and put them back in the tank.... it's HARD!
Do males or females have the egg spot more often?
Do males or females have the egg spot more often?
Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
I've never tried venting so I don't know how hard it is to do. All of my fish (except for the labs) were very easy to sex. The labs, I don't really care what the ratio of male to female is. They are happy, healthy, and looking good. So why mess with a good thing, right? lol
With Cobalts the egg spots really should not be an indicator of sex. I have done alot of research into sexing them (with what little differing info out there) and some say that egg spots determine sex and some say that it plays no part in Cobalts. My female has 5 egg spots. The male has 7. That could be a coincidence. But when I saw one holding eggs and the other not, THAT is the biggest indicator. lol
I'd hold off until they are of full grown adult size to try to determine the sex.
With Cobalts the egg spots really should not be an indicator of sex. I have done alot of research into sexing them (with what little differing info out there) and some say that egg spots determine sex and some say that it plays no part in Cobalts. My female has 5 egg spots. The male has 7. That could be a coincidence. But when I saw one holding eggs and the other not, THAT is the biggest indicator. lol
I'd hold off until they are of full grown adult size to try to determine the sex.
OP
OP
mr funktastic
Aquarium Advice Addict
well it was worth a shot lol i just started using photobucket for all my shots so i can get some much higher resolution ones now to help out. i only have a 2mp camera so it doesnt take the best shots but i think i am doing pretty good lol.
Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
The pics that you posted were of excellent quality! Just if some of mine would turn out like that.
OP
OP
mr funktastic
Aquarium Advice Addict
well those were done with low setting on the camera but i started using photobucket like i sais then i could use the highest setting to get a much more crisp and clear picture and it auotmatically resizes them if they are to big and it has the link already made out to post on this site so your pic appears!! sooo eay i dont know why i didnt do it before lol now i dont need to worry about running out of space and stupid stuff. here is my latest pic i took of my new plant
tracygh
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Nice pics mr.funk. I wish I had someone to tske nice pics like that of my tanks...
ianrich147
Aquarium Advice Activist
venting is the only way to be shure and is in deed vary difficult from start to finish and is only acurat on sexily mature fish Malawi Mayhem has a good article with pics that may help good luck catching them
