Is this a female

[Italy592]

Purchase these two demasoni n the dumbass aquarium ppl couldn't tell me if they were a pair or not ao can anyone help me n tell me if this is a female???

 

[kay-bee19]

Visual gender determination of Pseudotropheus demasoni is extremely difficult because the two genders can be near identical in appearance (and aggression). Full grown males tend to get larger than full grown females and the subtle fin visual cues (tapered pelvic and anal fins and somewhat proportionately larger pelvic fins) are slightly more evident.

Visually cues among males that aren't at max size (4"), or among identically-sized males and females (or larger female, smaller male), is very difficult.

For absolute gender accuracy these fish must be physically vented (and must be near mature or at full maturity to be precise).

However, all of that might be completely irrelevant because I don't think those fish are pseudotropheus demasoni's. They share a superficial semblence to demasoni's by being blue/black vertically striped fish but that's about it.

Demasoni's have thicker stripes and less stripes than the fish in the photo's. Usually 5 black stripes and 5 blue stripes (10 total stripes). Some specimens have stripe imperfections so sometime you'll see +/-1 or 2 stripes from the normal 10 stripes, sometimes half or merged stripes.

But I count about 15 stripes (give or take) on both of those fish. That's way too many stripes for a demasoni. And again, the stripes are narrower than typical demasoni stripes. I think those are most likely some sort of pseudotropheus elongatus or a hybrid of either elongatus or demasoni lineage. I'd personally return those fish if the intent was to stock demasoni's (and more than just a pair when you do get them).

Here are some examples of typical demasoni stripe patterns for comparison:

Small juveniles

1-day old demasoni fry

 

[Italy592]

R the fish uvthink they r good fish to have ???

 

[kay-bee19]

If they were obtained from a species tank labeled "P. demasoni", no. Their lineage is suspect (in my opinion) if that's what they were sold as.

If obtained from an assorted tank (which demasoni's are seldom found in, at least from what I've seen) then they're probably p. elongatus...probably. If they are p. elongatus then they're probably ok but they can be an aggressive species.

But it's sometimes harder to positively identify mbuna's from assorted tanks (or rule out hybrids). So if your intent is to breed these fish then no as well (unless they were sold from a tank labeled p. elongatus which doesn't seem to be the case).

If you're not planning to breed them (and disseminate their offspring to others), then they'd probably be fine additions to a mbuna set up.

 

[Italy592]

Thank u for ur help !!!