Help sex Festae Please!

[CANAMONSTER]

Big one is 6 in small about 5. I will take some photos!

 

[CANAMONSTER]

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[CANAMONSTER]

First two pics are the smaller one.

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[RBoydIV]

I'm no expert but 3-5 look male to me

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[CANAMONSTER]

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[CANAMONSTER]

What gets me is there is no courting behaviour at all! I dont know festaes but shouldnt they be ready to spawn at this size?

 

[dent20]

If they're both female, shouldn't they be going at each other? Thought you couldn't keep two females together, especially at that size, but I'm going by what I've read, not experienced. I just have one female.

 

[CANAMONSTER]

Im leaning towards females. Biger one does chase the other one alot!

 

[Rocksor]

What gets me is there is no courting behaviour at all! I dont know festaes but shouldnt they be ready to spawn at this size?

I had a male and female of the same size ~4-5" (about 1 year old). There were also other cichlids in the tank. The female would continually initiate fights and chase the male festae, tearing up his scales, whacking him with her tail. The male would always get into this S coil position when she approached. There was no courting behavior, and it looked like pure hatred for each other. After about a month of this she went into breeding colors in front of a 10" male jag in my tank. It looked like she was courting him. 30 days later she laid eggs for him to fertilize. She chose the much more robust male of the tank.

Get a much larger male festae and see if she changes her tune.