please sex these dempsys
- Thread starter ohio420jb
- Start date
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Fruitbat
Aquarium Advice Addict
ohio420jb...
Unfortunately your picture cuts off the part of the dorsal fin that might provide enough of a clue to tell you the gender of your fish. In general, male cichlids have longer, more pointed dorsal fins than the female. With Jack Dempseys the color isn't a very good indicator because they can change it so fast. I'd suspect that the darker fish is a male but the lighter fish could either be a female or a less dominant male.
Can you get us a picture showing the entire dorsal fin of each fish??
Unfortunately your picture cuts off the part of the dorsal fin that might provide enough of a clue to tell you the gender of your fish. In general, male cichlids have longer, more pointed dorsal fins than the female. With Jack Dempseys the color isn't a very good indicator because they can change it so fast. I'd suspect that the darker fish is a male but the lighter fish could either be a female or a less dominant male.
Can you get us a picture showing the entire dorsal fin of each fish??
Menagerie
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'm guessing male, but I was never very good at this.
Are these your fish, or are you picking them out from a LFS?
Are these your fish, or are you picking them out from a LFS?
Fruitbat
Aquarium Advice Addict
Looks to me like the two larger fish are males (the dark one is dominant) and the smaller fish is probably a female.
Cichlidguy
Aquarium Advice Regular
From the pictures it looks like they are already breeding size, what size of tank is that?
Cichlidguy
Aquarium Advice Regular
Dempseys are cave-spawning cichlids, and wont spawn in a bare tank like that. Some substrate, rocks, and caves would definately help. Try a big ceramic flower pot, when I bred dempseys thats what I used. And you wont definately get a pair. The easiest way to get a pair is have 5-6 juveniles in a tank and wait for them to pair up.
Menagerie
Aquarium Advice Addict
Just make sure the flower pot is aquarium safe. I had a flower pot in my QT tank and I believe it led to many early deaths 
Also, those are MEAN fish. JMHO, the dominant male will terrorize the other male. Definitely put in gravel and caves. Read up about JD by googling them.
Also, those are MEAN fish. JMHO, the dominant male will terrorize the other male. Definitely put in gravel and caves. Read up about JD by googling them.
