Unidentified Cichlids

by **juanke** » Sun Jan 24, 2021 8:38 pm

So I've had these fish along with about 15 others for 7-8 months now. supposed to be all males and have recently found fry in the tank and trying to figure out which one is the female, any ideas?

by **noki** » Sun Jan 24, 2021 10:55 pm

Given a choice of two, the colorful hybrid male in the lowest #4 picture seems to be obviously male. The drab pale hybrid one #3 without color could likely be female.

#3 could be the mother, since the fry seem to share the unnatural pink-peach pigment trait. In theory, she could have bred with any other Malawi male though, but the Dragon Blood could be the father since he looks to have dominant coloring.

by **juanke** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 5:17 am

Yeah that kind of what I was thinking too but just wasn't sure. I tried looking at the shape of the fins and looked for egg shapes on the anal fins but they all looked the same and all have them lol. I'm pretty sure the dull one is supposed to be a tangerine peacock cichlid. Looked pretty colorful when I got the tangerine tho. The tangerine is like 3-3.5" and the dragon blood is like 4-5"

by **Fogelhund** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:23 am

juanke wrote:Yeah that kind of what I was thinking too but just wasn't sure. I tried looking at the shape of the fins and looked for egg shapes on the anal fins but they all looked the same and all have them lol. I'm pretty sure the dull one is supposed to be a tangerine peacock cichlid. Looked pretty colorful when I got the tangerine tho. The tangerine is like 3-3.5" and the dragon blood is like 4-5"

They are often hormoned, so when you buys these from stores, some females will look like males. Even as they grow, they can keep male characteristics, such as longer fins etc, if they are females. They just tend to lose their bright colouring.

by **DJRansome** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:32 am

Also dragon blood and tangerine are hybrids, so there is no "true" tangerine or dragon blood. Egg spots are not a reliable indicator of gender. You could try venting the fish.

by **juanke** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:50 am

Ooh ok got it. Didn't know they were hormoned. That would explain why the tangerine cichlid looked like this when I bought it

by **juanke** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 4:37 pm

So think I found the female?

Unidentified Cichlids • peacock help

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