Jack Dempsey Male or female
- Thread starter mrzx 14
- Start date
Based on the first set of photos, it looks like you've got a male and female up front. In the second set of photos, I would say the first is male and the 3rd is certainly female (with the spangles below the jawline, but I would also say female based off the shape of the face/slope of the "forehead"). The middle picture in the last set is a little rough but I'd still say female for that one as well but is difficult to tell from that angle
No problem, mrzx! The are one of my absolute favorite cichlids. Here's a picture of my old blue gene breeding pair for reference.
Not the best photo to depict what I'm explaining, but you get the point:
The female in front has the blue spangles or "worming" below the jaw line, while the male has just a few dots below his eyes and the bottom of his gill flank/below his jaw line is bare - with no spangles
Not the best photo to depict what I'm explaining, but you get the point:
The female in front has the blue spangles or "worming" below the jaw line, while the male has just a few dots below his eyes and the bottom of his gill flank/below his jaw line is bare - with no spangles
I have one that has both male and female characteristics........I need to show you mine. SHape and appearance of a female, but no green 'beard' or worming, and it vented female and also has short dorsal and anal trailers, I thought I knew how to sex JDs until I got to THIS one. I'll post pics later. I think it's a male trying to fly under the radar since it was in a tank w/ a dominant male, 2 Sub-doms and 3 females that all stuck to the dominant male
Frank, you're not the only one! lol the more JD's I see, the more I see the same issues you're describing. I think a lot of it has to due with inbreeding of these fish - and probably line breeding as well. I've also noticed that a lot of fish sold as "EBJDs" appear to be quite low quality, and look like super colorful (like regular, wild type) jacks. For instance, one of my previous EBJD's was from a guy in Cali - I purchased 3 from him - and two looked like bold blue Jacks, while the third would fade in and out (similar to colors of a breeding dress, but @ 2" I highly doubt (s)he was attempting to court a spouse). When it wasn't in, I'll call it, "blue form" it looked like a regular jack with an irregularly high spangle count. Does your "female" have excess spangles down her body and just not below the jaw line like most females? Which is another trait I'm noticing in the females that don't display the blue worming down the gill flank. I'm curious to see yours
