Male or Female JD?

[Moloch]

Took this photo about 2 days after I switched from light play sand to the darker brown (red under my lighting) sand, and a few hours after I mixed in the black sand to darken that up. Now the JD is a few shades darker with a sweet red band above the eyes (you can see it faintly already in this pic)

So do you think its a male or a female, and rate my fish I've been thinking its a male, but the lips have been getting bluer here lately so I'm not sure?

(I'm still figuring out how to take pictures:\)

edit: more pictures for size reference & try to give you a front view...

 

[FishingOut]

Male.
Good body shape. He will grow up to be a winner.

*If you change your lights from the red or warm coloration you have now to a more blue cool spectrum his colors will show better. A blue backround will help a lot with color as well.

 

[Blankmanrl]

Looks male to me

 

[Gatorxxx420]

Male.

Mines face looks almost identical to yours. Here is a pic of my male and female... it's hard to see the blue splotching on her face, but you can see it around the edges of her gill plates a bit.

 

[burzumaske20]

Its a male for sure,I have one identical to that.

 

[creepyoldguy]

Male.
Good body shape. He will grow up to be a winner.

*If you change your lights from the red or warm coloration you have now to a more blue cool spectrum his colors will show better. A blue backround will help a lot with color as well.

Yes, I had a 120 set up w black background and black sand and a nice bright white light and an actinic and the fish looked amazing. I had a few jacks and a texas.

 

[Moloch]

The lighting is actually pretty cool blue. I took those photos with flash & really brought out all the red. I'll see if I can get a new picture of him tonight now that he's settled into the new substrate, he looks pretty killer now.

The background right now is just a brown sheet hanging, but it looks black under normal circumstances. Not sure when I'll get around to painting it or whatever I decide to do.

 

[Guapoako318]

A bit metrosexual, but I'd say male too.

 

[Hlee019]

A really nice looking male JD

 

[Modest_Man]

Female.

See the line of blue on the gill plate that almost looks like a "J" in your photo right below the eye along with the 5 spots like on a dice posterior to that? See how the female that GatorXXX420 posted has that but it looks like an "L" since it's the other side of the fish along with the spots? See how the male posted in the same photo by GatorXXX420 doesn't have that at all?

Blue on the lower gill plate is a female trait no matter if it's a small or large amount.

Male-no blue on the lower plate. Blue on the jaw means nothing.

Female with lots of blue on her gill plate.