Am I right that this has to be a male/female pair?

[jaylach]

The imaged fish are common name South American Smile Dwarf Cichlids, Laetacara araguaiae. They are the same age and species. By the color difference and size difference, along with the fin difference, I figure that they must be a male/female pair. Am I correct?

LOL! One of my few actual decent tank shots

 

[GaryE]

They look that way to me. I've kept the fish, but didn't breed them. That appears to be a youngish pair.

 

[Ichthys]

I’m not as confident as Gary with these. I’ve seen pictures of breeding pairs of Laetacara where both fish look exactly the same, with long pointy fins. Maybe females can have long fins but males can’t have short fins? I don’t know.
Also with just two of the same sex there will often be colour differences.

If they’re together a lot, and happy with each other, there’s a good chance of them being a pair.

 

[jaylach]

Actually I'm not interested in breeding and if they did I'd just consider it free food for my rope fish. I just thought that the difference in appearance and being the same age pointed toward male/female. And, yes, they are still rather young, probably not much over a year old, possibly a little less.

<edit>
Actually a correction.as to the photo as to the stated age of these fish was wrong. In the photo they were probably 6-8 months old.

 

[AJ356]

I wouldn't say they "have' to be a pair. I've made similar mistakes like you in the past with acara's

 

[Ichthys]

I’d say they look older than 6-8 months.

 

[jaylach]

I wouldn't say they "have' to be a pair. I've made similar mistakes like you in the past with acara's

I'm not all tat concerned as to if they are a mating pair. I'm just curious as to if they at likely to be male and female. Sigh! I'd LOVE to have blue and yellow Acara again but my tank is just too small.

 

[jaylach]

I’d say they look older than 6-8 months.

I'm just going on age by size when bought and such. When bought they were at the most 3/4 inch, obviously very young but not babies. Now they are about 1.5 inches as to the smaller and close to 2 inches for the larger. Possibly a bit older than 6-8 months but no more than a Year at most.

 

[emeraldking]

First thought while looking at this picture by their appearance: Front a male and in the back female. But as others also know is that young males look like females. So, depending on their age, it can be tricky.

 

[jaylach]

Actually they are older than I thought. I ordered them on 10/12/2022 so have had for ~15 months. Sure doesn't seem like that long but that's what the email receipt from Dan's Fish says...

 

[jaylach]

Shoot! Sometimes I'm an idiot... No wonder they look young to you folks. The image I posted was cropped out of the image I submitted with my cockatiel as pet of the month a year ago... Sorry, my bad. They currently look pretty much the same.

 

[Mr Limpet]

Most likely a pair. The fins on my L. araguaiae were pretty much the same length in both sexes, but the males grew quite a bit larger, and with time much chunkier, than the females.

 

[jaylach]

Not the best of shots but here are the cichlids currently. Pulled this from another thread about my new lighting. The dark one isn't actually quite that dark and the light one isn't all that light. The colors being off is due to affects from my camera's flash. For instance the yellowish/greenish pattern around the gills is actually like a neon blue. They just haven't cooperated for a better shot. I doubt that this image is really much help but, at least, it is current. LOL! Pardon the 'clown puke' gravel. Planning on changing that mistake. Sort of odd as these beasties always acted like the worst of enemies but, since the new lighting, they hang out together all the time.