I want to start a convict tank. and i bought 4 of them when they were verry litle. may be an inch in size.
Now 1 is very big comparing to others. showing some beautifull colors.
But i am afraid that all 4 of them are females.

here are some videos. I need to know if my blue(bigger) one is a male or female???? i think it is. but its not showing any female characteristics. except digging a hole and putting diff color rocks on the ridges of it.

If you can sex the other convicts in the vid let me know.

I will try to post some pics when i can. my batteries just died inmy cam. so as soon as i get back from work i will post pics.

and mainly i want to sex the big blue lol

Edit: They are so Hard to photograph. They keep moving constantly. so I only got pics of two bigger ones.










This post has been edited by LuSciOuS_GirL: May 21 2008, 07:07 AM

The females have a bright oragne belly, and they are a little more plump, and smaller than the maels. Males have longer fins. The pics didnt work. Can you post the IMG ode on here? Then the pic will automatically come up

I will try add IMG right now.

And about the color. i don't see any orange on my convicts.

Do males dig pits/holes also?

Can you get individual side pic's? If there is no orange, then they are probably all males.

Mine are less tan an inch and I'm trying to sex them as well, would young ones display the orange even when they are young?

I don't think they show color when they are very young.

The 2 big ones appear to be male. Also, how big is this tank you have them in? They usually start to show color at the 1 inch mark.

Got them in a 55g. Well at the stores where i bought them none of the convicts showed any color.

So now i have to find me a female and keep the big blue one. I will move my other convicts to a diff tank when i get female. I am not sure if i can find a female here.

Male


female

in the first photo the male is outside guarding the parameter of where the eggs are and the female in the cave fanning and guarding the eggs

yours look to be all male as i see no orange on the belly

This post has been edited by jb12288: May 23 2008, 02:14 AM

its hard when they are young but they tend to be much paler than the males with rosy cheeks,and smaller too,bit hard to tell in the first set of pics as there is so much colour in the tank,its not a natural enviroment, the day-glo i mean, and the fish would possibly feel stressed by it

This post has been edited by shelaghfishface: May 23 2008, 05:24 AM

i agree with shelaghfishface yours do look a bit stressed, mainly the last one. Their bars should be more defined than that.

where cichlids are young, telling the sexes apart are impossible unless the fishes internal sex organs are viewed. After a few months, they should start to color up and develop and will begin to show their adult patterns and colors

thats true, but her cons don't look that young. when i got my old cons they were smaller than that, all of them about 1 1/2-2" in length and i was easily able to tell the difference in sex.