Convict Cichlid Sexing Question?-PICS Updated

[IowaFish]

Hi Everyone-

I was hoping one of you could help me identify one of my 3 convict cichlids. I think I have 2 males and 1 female, although I asked for 2 females and a male, but the guy at the LFS wasn't to sure, and to be honest niether am I. So, I took some photos (not the best) of her(hopefully ) and was hoping you guys could help me out.

The reason I feel this one is female is because the fins are more rounded, it doesn't have a bump on it's head either (from what I can tell), but It doesn't have the orangish/red belly.

I will try and take some better pictures later tonight. Thanks

 

[IceH2O]

Females have orange bellies when they're ready to breed. The fins are more rounded.

A male has a longer dorsal fin almost looks like spike at the end of it.

 

[IowaFish]

hmm, looks like I might have 3 males then

 

[hulkamaniac]

Those look like females to me. As a comparison, here's the pictures I took of my male.
Males have pointier fins and they tend to be longer going past the tale. It's pretty easy to tell the female as they have the orange bellies. The males are harder to tell I think. BTW, how do you keep your convict from picking on the black skirts?

(I apologize for the poor quality. I'd take better pics, but I had to wake the fish up and he was skittish. Plus, the battery on the camera died.

 

[IowaFish]

Thanks for your help ...I apprecieate the pictures you took.

I plan on taking better pictures myself of my convicts and 29 gal. tank tonight.

I was actually quite suprised how the convicts responded to the black skirt tetra's. They haven't bothered them a bit. The black skirt tetra's skirt is jet black and don't seemed to be stressed a bit (I have 5 of them in there now). I just recently added the 3 convicts on Tuesday, and have had the black skirt tetra's in that tank for about a month now. So I will have to see how things turn out. I do plan on taking the tetras out once the convicts start to breed(my fingers are crossed haha). The convicts keep pretty busy chasing each other around and swimming in and out of the rocks. It's kind of fun to watch them

EDIT: Does anyone else have a hard time finding female convicts with orange bellies? I have been to 3 different LFS and couldn't find one that had an orange belly on them. I was also told on another forum(cichlid one) that the pointer fins and bump on the head aren't always true when looking for male and female?

Female

Male-I love his colors

Swimming around the rocks

Last one...

 

[goalorientation]

This thread helped me sex my convicts in seconds! One male one female

Males grow larger than females... True/false?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Dunno if this will help or not, but here is a pic of my male and female pink convict pair, with their first batch of eggs. This pic was taken about a year ago.

 

[Devilishturtles]

This thread helped me sex my convicts in seconds! One male one female

Males grow larger than females... True/false?

True, in my experience. But not really by alot.

 

[IowaFish]

This thread helped me sex my convicts in seconds! One male one female

Males grow larger than females... True/false?

Glad to hear that


Well as I said before I've posted on a few other forums and I'm getting mixed answers, so I guess time will tell

Develishturtles-thank you for taking the time to post your picture. I think it still gives me hope that I have a female after looking at yours. Your females belly doesn't appear to be as orange, but I guess the color does fade away after she gets rid of the eggs?

 

[hulkamaniac]

I think the problem more than anything is that a lot of fish in the LFS are washed out and you don't see their true colors 'til they get home and settle down.

 

[RoK]

Dunno if this will help or not, but here is a pic of my male and female pink convict pair, with their first batch of eggs. This pic was taken about a year ago.

That male reminded me of my female pink con because she has black spots as well.
Did you raise any of the babies up? If so, did you get any with some black spots?

 

[Jaybird]

You have to take all the info with a grain of salt, as it may not pertain exactly to your situation. I had what I thought was a pairing between two of my four convicts (2 @ 2-2.5” and 2 @ 1-1.5”). One of the 1-1.5" long ones has a tonne of red on her belly and one of the 2-2.5” ones has long trailing dorsal and anal fins and maybe four orangish scales on each side of the belly. From that, and their behaviour, I thought they had paired up. I assumed that I had three males and only one female. The larger of what I thought was a pairing was excavating gravel from inside a cave and the two were always going into the cave together.

I was SO wrong!!

They are both female. I did have a pairing but between the two 2-2.5” convicts. The male has no colouration except for the blue/grey with black stripes while the other has those few orangish scales. The female has much longer fin extensions than the male, in my case.

As parents, they are incredible. More so when the fry are small. Mine have fewer and fewer fry as the days pass. The fry are getting a little bigger and they are not guarding them as they used to. So, every once in a while, the braver of the other cichlids dashes by for a little “take-out”.

Give them time and you will see the results of their pairing. The first thing that was noticed was an increase in aggression, and then you’ll see the fry when they take them out for a little stroll.

 

[goalorientation]

Just curious, are there any other tankmates involved in your convict breeding process? I've got a male that's about 2" which has established himself as the alpha male of the tank, and a female just over 1" though they're still juvenile. The tank they're in is my high maintenance and stock 29g. Think they may try to pull off breeding with about 7 other fish in the tank, if they like each other that is (which is not the case now, the male just chases her around the tank very rarely)!

*EDIT
Personally I think there's too much of a crowd for them to have that much personal space, though the tank is well planted with various decor and rocks.

 

[Jaybird]

If the cons breed, they will take the space that the want and need. In a 29G, you may find that you will end up with some casualties. Even heavily planted, with lots of decor, there may not be enough room for the others to hide and flee. Some of my other cichlids have some nipped fins and I only have one breeding pair in a 90G.

As for having a crowded tank: they won't care about the space and will breed regardless.

Mine tend to defend an area that would equate to a sphere of roughly 14" in diameter. Sometimes they give chase beyond that limit, but they are quick to return to the fry.

They are fascinating parents to watch.

 

[IowaFish]

If the cons breed, they will take the space that the want and need. In a 29G, you may find that you will end up with some casualties. Even heavily planted, with lots of decor, there may not be enough room for the others to hide and flee. Some of my other cichlids have some nipped fins and I only have one breeding pair in a 90G.

As for having a crowded tank: they won't care about the space and will breed regardless.

Mine tend to defend an area that would equate to a sphere of roughly 14" in diameter. Sometimes they give chase beyond that limit, but they are quick to return to the fry.

They are fascinating parents to watch.

If that was to me, I have 5 black fin tetras and a pleco in my 29gal tank..

P.S.-the fish in question (a male or female?) Still hasn't gotten any color on it. The other to convicts are definitley male, but this one jsut dosen't have the color. It's really confusing me

 

[Jaybird]

Iowafish: the second picture of four that you posted on june 24, looks almost identical to my female. Right about the middle of where the pectoral fin is in the photo my female has some orangeish scales. My male has much shorter fin extentions, but has no orange/pink on him. The colours can be subtle at times.

If they are going to mate, you will likely notice one, or both, of the pair doing some excavation of the gravel in the tank.

Good luck with them. It's great fun to watch them be parents, and they do make awesome ones.