African cichlid sexing....?

Question

We have several cichlids in our tank and one female in particular has been a very successful breeder! Too successful in fact, as we can't keep as many as she's producing. Her babies all come out either yellow like her (she's a yellow lab) or grey with vertical stripes (as is one of the males). Is there any way to tell which of these babies is female or male just by color? Would the yellows be only female? We have another tank and seeing as we can't find a pet store that will take them we want to try and make a "female tank" to prevent over breeding.

Answer 1

No there is no way to tell by color which are which. I have heard that by lowering the temperature of the tank will either slow or stop all together the breeding of Africans. I have not tried this personally because my African cichlid tank is somewhat new and haven't had any breeding. But I was told from a friend that has had a lot of success with them that when they do start, when I want them to stop to lower the temperature. As far as sexing them, it is so hard being that some Africans are monomorphic (males look the same as females), and others are dimorphic (males and females have color variations). Labs are monomorphic, and the one that it mated with I'm not sore the species, but you see my point. I wish you luck with stopping the breeding, hope this helps.

Answer 2

I see you've gotten some good answers here so far. Directly, you can sex the yellow's by looking at the ventral and dorsal fins. As you can probably see in your male, the dorsal and ventral fins are predominantly black and dark. Females will be lighter and have significantly more white. Sometimes, when you have the presence of more then one male, the other males will subdue the coloring on their fins, and only the one dominant male will have that striking color. Sexing them can be difficult. I have mine that have spawned three times myself, and only my first batch that are now almost 2 months old can I even attempt to try to sex them. I'd focus more on the size then age though. The colors will come out more as they get bigger.

I also have to say this too. You really don't even need to get a bigger tank. Unless you are trying to breed these fish to sell them and want to keep the fry, just leave the female in the main tank with the other fish. The fry would become a food source for all the other fish, thus taking care of your population issues naturally. Seems cruel, but it is also quite natural at the same time. This is exactly what occurs in the lakes these fish come from. Only a few actually survive in the lakes due to the fry being targeted by adult fish. This would save you the trouble to seperate the males and females. If you do seperate them, and then breed when you wish I suggest this also. Once the female spits the fry, leave her be for a couple weeks in the tank with the fry. The females won't target the fry, but the adult males would. So you use the seperate tank to have the fry survive. At the same time, you need to let the female recover. She's been holding those eggs in her mouth and not eating for 3 weeks. If you put her right back in the main tank, males will go right after her to spawn again and that may kill her. Let her recover in the tank with the fry a couple weeks before putting her back in.

Answer 3

Actually africans can interebred
it would be good to know what other species you have in your tank

But as for sexing yellows, it's very hard until they reach juvenile age which is around 6-9 months old

What i have noticed on mine, is that the male has havy black on his dorsal fins (the 2 fins on the bottom of the fish) as well as his analfin, whereas the females have only slightly black which almost looks like a nice grey color shade
Also another thing i noticed, is that my male has a false eggspot on his analfin, which looks like a dark yellow spot




Hope that helps
Good luck



EB

Answer 4

I thought it said African CHILD sexing at first...whew!