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]

Originally Posted by goalorientation

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]

Originally Posted by goalorientation

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.