Please help me sex these 5

We all know how difficult it is to identify the sex of these fish, so please post a picture in here and we'll try to help you (or at least give an educated guess!).
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CichlidWhisperer
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Please help me sex these 5

Post by CichlidWhisperer »

This is the picture I have of the fish I am getting. I was told there are probably 2 males and 3 females, but would appreciate your opinion!


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davo
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Post by davo »

My guess all male and they need a good feed
CichlidWhisperer
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Post by CichlidWhisperer »

davo wrote:My guess all male and they need a good feed
Hmmm.. that would be very very disappointing. Are you just basing it on the body shape being more V, because I assumed this was because they were on the thin side. I was thinking the one all the way on the left looks to be a female even with the thin body. And I do plan to plump them up..
CichlidWhisperer
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Post by CichlidWhisperer »

So i got them today. They are A LOT smaller than they had been sold as, so maybe they can't be sexed yet. they range from just under 2 inches to just under 2 1/4 inches. Here are pictures just before they went into their new tank. They are pale in the pictures from almost a day of travel and all, but have really spruced up nicely in the tank. (please excuse the horrible pictures, we were rushing to get them into their tank).

I think I have two females (fish 2 and 5) and two males, but unsure. I would really appreciate your thoughts!


Fish 1:
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Fish 2:
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Fish3:
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Fish 4:
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Fish 5:
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And this is one of them (I think Fish 5) about 40 minutes after he went into his tank... they all colored up great!
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GrubbyGirl
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Post by GrubbyGirl »

Can't help you sex them as I am nit experienced so I would be guessing, but they look too small to sex. Gravel is not a great substrate for Zebras as they wont be able to get the food that falls through the gaps, plus it's much harder to keep clean
CichlidWhisperer
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Post by CichlidWhisperer »

Yeah I considered the pros and cons for gravel, sand, and a bare tank. Seems none are perfect. Sand was not an option in this tank because I have definite currents. I have read on this site that with currents, the food does not stay still with a bare bottom for them to eat, but gravel allow it to get caught a little. Plus, I really don't like bare tanks. I am familiar with gravel cleaning and keep my other tanks perfectly clean with frequent vacuuming, so I am planning on trying this for at least a little while and see how it goes.
GrubbyGirl
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Post by GrubbyGirl »

Actually I've discovered that they like to chase the food about. My bare bottom tank has a dead spot that very accessible so any left over food ends up there making it easy to siphon out in the morning
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davo
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Post by davo »

pm sent
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