Does Anybody Know How To Sex Pink Convicts?

[GShorty1981]

My big male Red Devil "Damon" (7.5") and my Pink Convict (2.5") who i thought was male are showing breeding behavior.

The big RD is always chasing the Pink Con around the tank ...i thought this was over territory....then i noticed the Pink Convict is looking a bit bloated (possibly egg bound) but it has a very slight hump on its head so i assumed it was male.

Now today the Red Devil has dug a giant pit in the gravel and the Convict is always close by, if it swims away, the Devil chases the Convict back to the pit.

There is also a serious size difference here between the fish, Damon is about 3x deeper and 3x thicker than the poor lil con lol

The Con has a lot of orange on it, the body is half white and half orange....is this a sign of female?

I will try and get some pictures later

 

[clay]

well if its a female its sides should turn orange when its trying to breed.

 

[GShorty1981]

Its permantly orange, almost looks like a mini Red Devil, the other 3 i had and sold where all the same, one was deffo female because it bred with a black Con i had a few months ago.

The thing that throws me off is the slight nuchal hump that he/she has.

 

[GShorty1981]

Heres some picture of them both

guarding his pit

both together

 

[clay]

i would say female because of the short body and the orange sides. some female permanently have orange sides or at least mine did. it also looks like its swollen with eggs too

 

[GShorty1981]

Nice looks like i'll be having some Red Devil x Pink Convict fry then, wont be raising them tho, not enough room and noone will want them.

 

[clay]

im only familiar with only a few types of crosses can they actually cross?

 

[GShorty1981]

Yep all central American cichlids can cross, but only a few Souths.

 

[clay]

cool. ive heard that they can also cross with texas cichlids too.

 

[GShorty1981]

Yep and Jack Dempseys, Firemouths etc etc

 

[clay]

nice

 

[GShorty1981]

My Devil is guarding his pit all the time now...only leaving occasionally to chase the convict, the convict is just looking really fat and swimming around the tank normally.

Could this just be territory disputes?

 

[clay]

could be relationship problems

 

[GShorty1981]

Can anyone else give me a opinion on my Convicts sex?

 

[england]

convict looks female, from what i can see of breeding tube, also no noctual hump and fins all look female, if you look at male fins there long and flowing, if you can see the tubes, males are long and thin, where a females is fat short and stumpy and appears cut at a angle,breeding tubes are white in colour at base of fish, the devil looks to have a noctual hump on the head, but difficult to see correctly in pic, they could both be female, and still carry out breeding ritual, all the way down to eggs