Do all male's have spots?

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mukundam123

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 6, 2008
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Sunderland
Quick question. Do all male cichlids have the anal fin spot? What does it mean if they have two (i.e. in some species, does the male have 2 and the female have 1?). Do females sometimes have the spot?

Reason I ask is most of the fish I have seem to have a spot, which suggests that I have a ratio of 3m:2f for my yellow labs! Also, the johanni/maingano which is holding (and which I thought was a male - when I bought it, it was blue like the other johanni/maingano, but now it's lost its colour), also has a spot!

Can anyone shed some light on this please?

Cheers


P.s. - can johanni/maingano change sexes if there are only 2 of their kind in the tank?

Thanks
 
Well the spots are egg spots and both male and females can have them so its not a good way to sex them. As for the number of spots on males as to the number of spots on females I am not really sure if there is a number for them or if there is a difference or not - never really looked that closley into it.
 
Awesome - so there's still a chance that I've quite quite a few females in there?! What's another way to sex them (e.g. blue zebra's or pseudotropheus acei yellow tail), apart from taking them out and checking out their parts?
 
Thats a good idea. I'm going to have to wait a while though, as I haven't got a decent enough camera. When I get it, will definitly post pictures.
 
Acei yellow tails are going to be almost impossible to sex unless you notice a female holding or you pull thm from the tank and vent them.
 
If you really want to know the sex of your labs, pull them out and vent them. PM me if you have any questions.
 
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