Laetacara Dorsiger
- Thread starter NUMB3RS
- Start date
It's not obvious except on older ones. Males dorsal and anal fins should exceed the midpoint of the caudal fin. Also they do get, while I wouldn't call it a nuchal hump, their foreheads are higher and rounder and do get a little bump. Younger ones it's harder, but the fins do give a clue. When there are both together, even at about 2" it's usually easy enough to tell.
Pretty much agree with what darth pike has mentioned. I've ready on various websites that the white speck pattern in the black blotch half way along the dorsal fin can also be an indicator but I haven't had the chance to compare definite males and females to verify.
Here is a pic of one of my males to show you the dorsal/anal fins. The color is washed out since it was their first day in the tank. Well that and it was my first time taking pics of my fish. They were about 2" SL at the time of the photo.
Yours has very nice coloring. I'd lean towards male atm, I know they are still small. The reason I'm leaning male though is the length of the anal fin and the dark edging on it. The coloring can be tricky, as dorsigera cover a large range and there are slight color variants of it so it's not 100% by any means. Indeed, neither my males of females had that black anal fin edging. But looking at some F1's at a LFS, I noticed the males all had the edging earlier than the females of that color form.