It's time to cut stock in the lyonsi tank...

[Buphy]

Generally indicates male or female?

 

[jaws7777]

Havent seen these guys in a while post some pics man.

I had the same issue with zonatus. I set up another tank and gradually moved the ones i didnt want. The problem i had was they all stressed out as soon as the net hit the water and they all looked the same. I would let them all settle down to make sure i didnt move a potential keeper

 

[MP_cichlid]

Generally it indicates female, but I would recommend the divider that I mentioned.

 

[Buphy]

Thanks Jaws, I'll try and get some picks when I'm home. Oddly enough I saw a spike in aggression with them when and after I moved a bunch of fish in with them temporarily to do a massive cleaning on another tank. They left the new fish alone but a lot of fun slapping and chasing of each other. Was very interesting. As for moving them to another tank, I don't have the room =S nothing is gonna go with a 9" green terror in a 75 gallon and I'd worry about the long term stress in a 125 SA community. Maybe I can convince my wife to let me set up my 40 breeder as a bed side table...

 

[Buphy]

Here's a few older but still more recent than y'all have seen pics of them...

 

[dan518]

My old female never had black on her dorsal fin,

 

[MP_cichlid]

ya its not a guarantee by any means. Like I said earlier, given that they aren't sexed and can't easily be sexed, the more you have only raises the chances of pairing off. Getting rid of any will simply give less choices for mates. I think you could capitalize on the fact the the two troublemakers are so much larger than the rest. Chances are that those are the two dominant males of the group, by dividing them and allowing the others to get through the divider would be the best call IMO

 

[Buphy]

I'll have to do some rescaping to get the divider down the middle, but that sounds like the best strategy. Now Justin to figure out how to cut the right size holes in divider...

 

[MP_cichlid]

Go smaller than you think at first, it's easier to make a the hole bigger than it is to shrink it. But if the holes r too big you can use zip ties to shrink them

 

[Buphy]

Any recommendations on how to smooth out the edges on the hole? Last thing I want is some one trying to squeeze through to get safe and get cut instead...