My 3 texas - please help sexing

[nikomil1]

Hello guys these are my 3 Texas cichlids (supposed to be red). At the moment they are between 2 and 3 inches in length and kind of brownish-green.

Can anyone help determining if they are males or females? I have named them fish1 fish2 and fish3. Fish 1 is the biggest (and boldest of them all, swimming all over the aquarium), fish 2 is second in line when it comes to being brave to swim all over the place, and fish 3 spends most of the time besides the rocks. Note that fish 3 has kind of biggest belly (most egg shaped, the other two are kind of more elongated or torpedo like.)

All three of them have black marks in their dorsal fin, so if the theory about black mark in the dorsal fin is true then they all should be girls. What do you guys think?

Fish 1



Fish 2




fish 3



all three of them



and two links of youtube videos

 

[anzo1993]

I would say 2 females and 1 male, 2 of them have very visible dark spots on there dorsal fin indicating female

 

[nikomil1]

I would say 2 females and 1 male, 2 of them have very visible dark spots on there dorsal fin indicating female

you suspect fish2 to be male? its just her fins on the photo are clamped... all 3 have black spot in the dorsal fin... but i would be happy if i have more than 1 female

 

[duanes]

I agree with the others, both 1 and 3 have black dorsal spots, their profiles appear to be female, and unpaired fins are roundedfi.
But 2 is a toss up for me, could go either way. Not mature enough to call one way or the other, and because there is at least another more dominant cichlid in the tank, it could be preventing it from developing.

 

[nikomil1]

Not mature enough to call one way or the other, and because there is at least another more dominant cichlid in the tank, it could be preventing it from developing.

Yes there is a 4-5 inch short body flowerhorn and 2 blood parrots (around 4 inch) in there as well as 1 severum (3inch)

i just added all the bunch as juveniles hoping to get a pair for my flowerhorn, the rest will go out as they mature if some aggression shows up. for now everyone has his/her own rock to go behind and favorite place to spend the day if not swimming whole length of the aquarium.

 

[nikomil1]

regarding the texas... will they change the color (get dark and then peel into red or will they keep this shade of brown-redish? they are just cheap import from asia nothing too fancy so i dont know what to expect

 

[nikomil1]

Two of them started getting black on their belly and under their mouth. Are they getting into spawning mood or just growing up and getting sexually mature? The black appears when they liplock and goes away when they calm down. All 3 of them kind of fight briefly but only fish 1 and fish3 get the black coloration on the lower part of the body. Fish 2 does not change any color.

here are some photos