Venting Electric Yellows?

[fry_forever!]

Hi guys. I have 6 electric yellows in my 57 gallon aquarium, 4 of which are juveniles that I got from an auction. The other two are full grown, and one is really aggressive towards the other one. I made the mistake of not getting the guy at the pet store to vent them for me (and I didn't vent them myself) so since they are almost impossible to catch in the net, I tried to get a picture of their underside. They are not the best quality...

1st one, dominant:


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2nd one:


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If you need a bigger picture, you can always go to the site and click on the picture, it will zoom in a lot.

Thanks in advance for any help.
-f_f!

 

[timmorrison]

Hiya, It sure is hard to sex them, i am having the same issues which i posted about below you

Since i posted that i have tried venting two other Labs at the shop and i have to say it was easier in bright light and with bigger fish. I think when a female has had eggs before it becomes easy to tell. Well i am a total novice but for what it is worth, going on the pics you have there i would venture a guess at 3 females. (yep i think 3 females if you want a beginners thoughts )
The vents seem quite distinct. In my male the vent seemed almost as small as its anus, females can appear noticeably larger.

I wish i had 3 females! I didnt know what sex the 2 i had were, same problem as you, impossible to catch in a heavily rocky tank. I got one female and one male from the shop yesterday. Now im trying to work out the other two by their interactions but it is not easy heh.

 

[fry_forever!]

Thank you! That's what I thought as well! There's actually only two larger ones, and 4 smaller ones, so I'm pretty sure I have 2 females on my hands! Which was exactly what I was aiming for when I bought them from the store. Once the 4 small ones grow up, I'll vent them, and I'm hoping for 3 more females and a male! (But I'm sure I won't end up that lucky. )

Thanks for the input!
-f_f!

 

[Realtree]

I would say pics 1 and 2 are of females but can't tell with pic 3 as vent is not visible = don't rely on number of egg spots or lack of them as I have male mbuna with only the one spot and females with 3

 

[fry_forever!]

So then I have two females. There's only two I'm trying to vent. Weird thing is, one of them is holding eggs.