ex-Cichlasoma ornatum difficult to sex? I beg to differ

[HerCrenVie]

Camera phone pictures, so please excuse the poor quality.

Females have a huge, very conspicuous black patch on the dorsal fin. Males have none. This picture was taken 10 or so minutes after putting them in the tank.

I will get proper pictures with my camera after they get settled in. They are extremely shy at the moment, especially the female.

 

[the animal guy]

beautiful already

 

[HerCrenVie]

beautiful already

That picture does them no justice, believe me. I will try to get shots with my D600 as soon as I feel they're ready, but they are extremely shy and skittish at the moment.

 

[Aweshade9]

They look great even though they seem stress a little. I hope you breed them. It would be nice to know some breeding triggers.

 

[HerCrenVie]

This is the best I can do at the moment. They are indeed quite stressed, and have not eaten anything yet. The female does have a very full belly though, hopefully it's eggs and not something else.

This is the male.

 

[Aweshade9]

A belly full of something else doesn't sound too good. I love the pattern on the cheek.

 

[HerCrenVie]

A belly full of something else doesn't sound too good. I love the pattern on the cheek.

Yeah, but they seem healthy and okay. Somehow I have a good feeling about getting them to spawn. We'll see.

 

[HerCrenVie]

They're doing a lot of displaying to each other, but nothing hostile. Hopefully it works out.

 

[freebyrd]

They look very nice

 

[duanes]

Great post, it prompted me to look back at photos of my ornatum juvies to see if the dorsal dimorphism id tool is apparent at a small size.
In the pic below, these are only a little over an inch.

I'm guessing the 2 in the center would be female, as is the one directly below.

Below seems to be a male.

This info may be useful for separating the females in the grow out period, to allow them to grow unmolested by the larger males, if there is a more dangerous stage which becomes apparent in the near future.