Labidochromis Caeruleus questions

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bbenjamin21

Gambusia
MFK Member
May 10, 2010
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New York
Ok I'm interested in getting some of these fish. I will be purchasing them as big as I can get them. A lady a the LFS was showing me them and telling that to determine the sex is to see how many "egg spots" they have on their bottom fin. Males having a lot and females usually only having 1. Now I only ask because she says there's a lot less aggression if you do all males. I don't want to breed so if this is the case I'd rather go all males. Also if there is anything else anyone wants to add just go ahead and add, I will be doing these fish for the first time so any info will help.

Thanks,
Steve
 
The best way to sex fish is to vent them. You cannot tell the sex by looking at the eggspots. Yellow labs are some of the least aggressive mbuna. You are better off getting a group of juveniles and letting them grow up together. Plus it will be a lot cheaper.
 
^^x2

My males tend to have more black in the finnage and black slashes across the eyes. None of my yellow labs have any egg spots so I'm not sure how I'd ever use that to tell. lol

It's still going to be tricky to get all males though at juvenile sizes. They are by far one of the least aggressive mbuna IME
 
As already mentioned, yellow labs are probably the least aggressive mbuna out there and it really shouldn't matter if you have a mixture of males and females (as far as aggression goes). The only situation I might be worried is if I had a ratio of 5 males for every female, but the worry is more that the females will never get a break from breeding (just so you know for future, a 1M:3F is recommended, but not as big a deal with yellow labs).

One other thing is that this species is monomorphic, which means the males and females basically look the same - so as far as looks it doesn't matter if you have a mixture of males and females.

So, the only problem with having a mixture of males and females is you will likely have breeding, which will lead to babies. Personally I don't mind babies in my tank, most of them become a free snack for my other fish, but I currently do not "try" to breed my fish. If they mate, then they mate. I don't try to pair them off or anything and I don't sell babies.

If you are against having babies in your tank then there are some species of synodontis (genus of catfish from rift valley lakes) that do a very good job of finding and eating the babies. This can be helpful because if you don't do something about babies you will most likely outgrow your tank (which is easily rectified by taking some of the fish to the LFS or selling them on craiglist or something).

If you really do want an all male tank of yellow labs you are going to have a hard time, and without venting you are going to have to basically wait for a fish to hold - then you know it is a female and can remove it. As for choosing fish with lots of egg spots, this is a general thing that can increase your chance of getting males but it is not a perfect science. In fact, both my male yellow labs have no egg spots, while my three females all have at least 3.

All in all, my suggestion would be to just get the number of fish you want to get and not worry about getting a mixture of males and females. If you are worried about babies then get a synodontis or remove them. Otherwise you are going to likely be switching fish out constantly. Good luck and let us know what you decide.
 
Whoa I didn't see the last post due to my phone being slow. But great info thank you all! I don't have to worry about babies. These fish will be with a 1' gar which is y I will be purchasing them already at Mac size. My lfs has them listed at 20 bucks a piece. And they said that that is a sale, they r usually 40 bucks. Is this a good price. I know I can go to petco and get them for 7 bucks. But they aren't at the size I need.
 
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