Distinguish male and female Cichlids

[Frannko]

Hi Everyone

I have like 52 South American Cichlids in my tank. I have kept it for almost one year. Recently, i am thinking of picking up a couple and breed. I really hope someone can help to advise me how i can distinguish the male and female fish. II would really appreciate someone can help soon, i can't wait to try to breed these fish soon

 

[juanveldez]

52 in a tank....... why that must be at least over 1500 gallons of water. the easiest way to tell male from female, is that most often the male will be more colorful and the ends of the dorsal and anal fins will come to a sharp point while a female will be less colorful and her dorsal and anal fins will be more rounded than the males

 

[smb]

52 in one tank?!

Some species you can make generalizations and tell from the finnage, size, coloring etc. like jaunveldez mentioned and it's a good way to tell but in most cases the only 100% sure way to tell is by venting. (or seeing them lay eggs)

What cichlids do you have?

 

[Frannko]

Hi Everyone

I have like 52 South American Cichlids in my tank. I have kept it for almost one year. Recently, i am thinking of picking up a couple and breed. I really hope someone can help to advise me how i can distinguish the male and female fish. II would really appreciate someone can help soon, i can't wait to try to breed these fish soon

http/groups.msn.com/SACichlids/shoebox.m...snw?albumlist=2

i have posted my fish tank picture with the fish on the above website

I dun know what is the exact name for my cichilids...it would be nice if any of you guys can advice me...i would deeply appreciate that

I have also checked out with the advice which you have given but every fish fins looks almost the same....is there by any chance i can get more advice or maybe you can advice me from the pictures i have posted above...

Thank you very very much!

 

[Frannko]

Handsome Turtle

 

[cichlidmaster]

Frannko,

Actually what you have there are not S. American species, but fish that hail from central Africa!!

Hemichromis lifalili or commonly called the blood/forest red jewel is collected out of the Congo river basin.

The males are bigger and not as brightly colored as the females. The females will also be plumper and more round in the stomach area than the males.

The other fish I saw in your pics are blood parrots and cannot be considered a valid species as they are manmade hybrids.

If you wish to breed these my advice is to pick 1-2 of the larger less colorful jewels and 3-5 of the more brightly colored ones.

This will not guarantee a good male/female mix however as IMO you have WAY to many fih in your tank and with the cramped quarters the fish may not be exhibiting their full colors.

Good luck and hope this helped.

CM

 

[Frannko]

My apologises for the mistake i made about the name of the fish....wut a shame about myself to have got the name wrong for such a long time

I saw a fish shop that put the name South American Cichlids with a fish similar to mine...since then i always thought that my fish is actually south american cichlids.

Thank you for correcting me.

U seems like you know everything abt cichlids....can u provide some clues or ways as to how i can get to know more abt these cichlids....

I forgot to mention that i also have Blood parrots in my tank, how do u know its manmade hybrids? They seems to grow very naturally to me and growing very well..

My fishes used be in a 2 ft tank, now i have migrated all the fish to a 3 ft tank. from the pictures i have posted, do u guys think my tank is over populated?

i used to put plants into the tank but the cichlids are very damaging to the plants. wut other stuff can i put to help improve their colours?

"This will not guarantee a good male/female mix however as IMO you have WAY to many fih in your tank and with the cramped quarters the fish may not be exhibiting their full colors." From: Cichlidmaster

wut does IMO and WAY and 'fih' means?

sorry for postings such a long topic as i suddenly felt i have missed out so many details about these fish...

Its really nice to have got to learn more new things from here!

By the way, how many gallon is my fish tank? Its 3ft length x 1.5 ft width x 1.5 height.

Thank you

 

[Mogo]

IMO - in my opinion

And CM was saying you have WAY (stressing the point) too many fish in your aquarium, and I'll have to agree with this.

The best way to find out information about the fish is to do a search, use the common name and do a search using the species name. There should be plenty of info out there.

From the measurements you gave sounds like the tank is in and around 45-50 US gallons.

 

[aernympha]

wow sure ur tank little over corwded but it looks cool with all those red fish!!! hehe and a turtle very random but kool