Festae sex?

[Carter020108]

This female is around 3.5" and you can see how the front dorsal is darkening, spangled are disappearing from the tail, and pelvic find are going dark.
View attachment 1497204

Your fish would already show these traits if it was female at 5.5" in my experience. Males don't really color up much different than juvenile unless they are dominant or spawning. Is this fish dominant?

No it is not the dominant as it has competition ( jaguar, Freddy, red devil, and a gt)

 

[duanes]

One of the problems with keeping a species like festae, in with other dominant species, or without a proper mate of their own species, is they will sometimes not show their true colors.
Because there are few other cichlid species in their natural habitat, they have not evolved a temperament to deal with that situation.
Below is a females festae with some other slightly more dominant species in her tank (but no male festae).

Below that same female when the other species were removed, and a male added