Male or female yellow fin acei

[Arborist131]

I currently have two yellow fin acei's and I'm starting to think ones a female but I can't be sure. Ive had the one I think is a female for a month longer then my male and it's barily grown an inch. I bought the second one smaller then the original and now it literally dwarfs the other and is really nicely colored.

Original fish (female?): maybe 2.5 inches long, not a very tall body. Coloring varies from a silvery blue/light blue to a silver with faint vertical stripes, and has faint yellow fins.

The second acei is 3.5 - 4 inches long, much taller, better looking and shows a more dominant behavior. He's always a nice dark blue with a shiny blue face, and his fins are a really nice yellow. he's always out front in the tank showin off and the smaller silver one is rarely seen, always just darting in amongst rockwork till I approach the tank.

Going to try and get a couple photos but it's nearly impossible to get the smaller one in the shot, all my venustus crowd the frame. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mfdrookie516]

IME with acei, you can't tell the males and females apart based on color. I had at least 4 males out of the 18 I had and they looked identical to the females. Really, venting is the only way you're going to know for sure. Unless, you happen to catch them breeding.

 

[Arborist131]

Ok thanks was never too sure if they varied in coloration between sex's, thanks for clearing that up. I'm not an expert so I'm not going to venting yet I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I suppose their like red tops? I have a few and my biggest best one is always the lightest brightest coloring, with the smaller ones darkening whenever he's near. Could the larger dominant acei being similar? Showing it's best coloring because it's the tough one or something?

Always been curious about color changes being related to a cichlids attitude/mood/size at the time but it's all just assumptions. Any thoughts or personal experiences on that?

 

[mfdrookie516]

Yeah, the dominant fish will always have the most vibrant colors. This is especially the case with the same species. I had two male kenyi in my 150... the large male was the dominant. He was bright yellowish orange with faint bars. The sub-dominant male was a darker orange with brown stripes. And, the majority of mbuna darken with stress, and turn almost white at night when the lights are off.

 

[Arborist131]

Ok cool good to know thanks. I'll have to sneak up on them one night with a small flashlight and check them out.