My Golden eyed dwarf cichlids- Sex is a mystery!

[Maroonostrich]

Ok, here's the one male I have, and what was hoped to be a girlfriend...

 

[Maroonostrich]

This is another nice shot of the male and a 'female' or sub male!!

Lovely irridescent scales aren't they? He's a beautiful fish, really has the looks of a bigger fish.

 

[Maroonostrich]

That last one shows where they got their name doesn't it?!

Sorry about all the neons in the piccies, the whole tank was begging at the time and coming to the corner to demand food.

This is the three together. I hoped for a guy and two gals.. not sure what I have though- Dave, the obvious male, chases the two an awful lot but there doesn't seem to be a lot of fighting as they are submissive to him.

I have no idea if they are two girls or two subservient males, one is definitely suspect, opinions welcome!

 

[bunjiweb]

hard to tell from the pics, although looks possibly like 1ma/2fem.

Ben

 

[Maroonostrich]

OOOOoooh, hope so, thanks ben!

 

[Peter Lovett]

You have two males and one female

 

[troutfly]

I have to agree with Peter on this one, from the looks of thier dorsal fins, the two on the bottom are the males and the one on top is a female. Cichlids are one of the easiest fish to determine the sex of, 99.9 % of the time, the male will have a longer and pointed dorsal fin where as the females is usually shorted and rounded. I hope this helps clearify things for you and good luck with them.

 

[bunjiweb]

 

[Snailguy101]

cool

 

[G_Sharky]

If those are anomala nanacara's the the female should have some red on their dorsal fins and the male will have a distinctive green coloration on them and the female would be alot smaller than the male...Very nice little cichlids though....

 

[lucky62]

If those are anomala nanacara's the the female should have some red on their dorsal fins and the male will have a distinctive green coloration on them and the female would be alot smaller than the male...Very nice little cichlids though....

Looks like you may have 1 female , hard to tell from pics . For me at least .

When breeding and even raising fry Females will become very dark [ almost black ] , with yellow/gold blotches standing out in contrast to the dark body coloration , beautiful , happy males always seem to look good

I'm with G , look for the red along the dorsal , my females have never shown any green/blue color on the body , not even faintly . If the gill covers show color [ blue/green color ], you prob have 3 males , anal and dorsal fins are short and rounded on females . Normally , full grown females are much smaller than males , roughly half the size [ freaks happen ].


IME , Nannacara anomala is one of the easiest of cichlids to sex , look like different species , I have had to explain this to people netting them for me .



Males on the other hand may display a stripe the length of their body when uncomfortable , look closely at the dorsal and anal fins , if they are pointed and not rounded , you most likely have a trio of males .


They will breed at small sizes too , my first pair ever were fry themselves , the male was barely 1 inch and the female half his size , with in days of getting them , still in quarantine , they bred .

Try and get some more pics of the smallest one .

Males seem to have white along the tops of their dorsal , where females display red [ IME] .

EDIT . My pair , I'm not the greatest picture taker , hope this helps .
the female

both with an apisto next to [ behind ] the male , female above .

 

[Maroonostrich]

Thanks every one for the help, really appreciate it.

I think I have 3 boys!!

This is not good surely, as it is not the biggest tank and they do get pretty territoial don't they, as stated they all defer to Davey boy but they are good at hiding which won't be easy as they age....

Here is a shot of the 'suspected' male on the left. The hoped for 'female' is head on alongside.

'She' is the weediest of the three, looks a lot narrower than the other two, and the shyest. Had to pretend to feed to get the shots here. Still took ages..

 

[Maroonostrich]

Okay, here is the 'female' or girly male, alongside the neons...

I see no red. Nor the dark versus faint distinction I see in your piccies Lucky..

Here we are...

 

[Maroonostrich]

Right, here's 'her' close up...

Note the tiny amount of irridescent scales on the gill covers....

'She' never 'displays' to the other two, whilst they will raise their dorsal fins and 'stalk' eachother, but maybe s/he is just terrified of the pair of them!

 

[lucky62]

Sorry , I think you have three males also . I see pointed fins

My pair were just begining to spawn in those pics .

Have another look where you got them , females in shops are usually pretty drab looking , and IME are a little plump looking compared to the males , and usually much smaller .

A couple of the people that have netted me "pairs" , had gotten me 2 males [ to them the females looked so different they couldn't believe they were even the same species ] , when I brought this to their attention ........they had to ask the boss , maybe this is your case , and maybe they have females hiding somewhere in the tank at the shop


with no female [ bonding/breeding ] aggression shouldn't be too bad for a bit .[you may have some time ].

How big is the tank ?

Try searching "Google images " I've found some great photos by doing so .


Good luck .