Lake Malawi Species • Sexing yellow labs

[fishy_foo]

Hi,
I read in a book that male labs have a black stripe in their anal fin whereas females don't. Is this true?

I got 8 yellow labs and need to pick out all but 1 male. Can anyone tell me how to sex them without venting?

Thanks,
Ami

[ws812]

The black stripe thing is definitely not true. My female that spawns the most has a black stripe in her anal fin. The only sure way of knowing is whether or not the fish has held eggs before. Behavior is sometimes a clue but never concrete.

[fishy_foo]

The black stripe thing is definitely not true. My female that spawns the most has a black stripe in her anal fin. The only sure way of knowing is whether or not the fish has held eggs before. Behavior is sometimes a clue but never concrete.

Yeeesh ! I'm so glad that I got the book from the city library and didn't buy it !
That's definitely one book I will not recommend.
If the labs get along fine, do you think I could just keep them? I got a 55G that I just started.

[Corrupted]

Although probably not common on here to recommend this, I've read quite a few times that ratio doesn't matter nearly as much with labs as most other mbuna. Still, you could always wait until there is an issue before making adjustments.

[AlphaWild]

Because of the uncertain heritage of many yellow lab strains out there, it's hard to generalize. In my experience, I started with a random unsexed group and had no real problems with them until about 3 years old when one fish got beat up. When I removed it for recovery, I decided to try my hand at venting and was surprised to find that one to be female (I was expecting a sub-dom male). After she healed up, I removed a couple more fish so I could sell a breeding trio. I now have 9 adults, at least 3 are certain males, and all is well.

[fishy_foo]

Thanks guys. I'll keep the 8 I got and see what happens.