female cockatoo (?)

[Airli]

i recently got a pair of cockatoo cichlids, and this is the female.
can anyone tell for sure if it really is a female? as she seems to be dominant over the over one,

i havent managed to be able to get pics of the male yet, he is a lot shyer and paler in colour. where this one is a kind of goldy colour the other is more silver but has the red patterns in his tail, but they are fairly dull as well.

 

[longhorn13]

that's definitely a female, when they get really yellow they're in their breeding colors

 

[leroy]

Looks like a female to me to!

 

[Airli]

thanks, was just making sure. her colours put my male to shame. and she seems to bully him a bit. ive got a heap of pics i just took that show that shes really bright yellow at the minute. ill post them in a minute. i wish my male had half her colour...

 

[Griz]

One of my females is quite aggressive and will often chase the male out of her end of the tank. Her colours are really beautiful, much nicer than her sister who she pushes around too. I often think she is more beautiful than the male.

One thing with cockatoos is that their colours can change dramatically in just a few seconds. This often coincides with changes in posture, tail fanning, fin and gill flares, etc. Fascinating to watch.

 

[pnyklr3]

Yep, I agree with everyone that it is a female. One of my females had extrodinary pattern on her tail and a little color on her dorsal fin. She actually had me wondering for months if she really was female!

IMO females are just GORGEOUS when they are bright yellow with the deep black.

 

[dwarf-puffers]

is this what u r talking about because i love this picture!

 

[pnyklr3]

Nope, that's a male.

Here is a yellow one:

And two sizing each other up for a staring contest (It ended with one chasing the other)!: