New to forum and would appreciate your help and advice.

[BirdieBoo]

Hey there fellow fish-a-holics! I’m sure there have been 100 posts like this before but I can’t see any that help with my particular Jaguar cichlid. I have two and have had them from 1inch fry. I’d really like to see if they are big enough to tell their gender yet. The larger one is 5-6 inches long now. The smaller is 4-5 inches. Both have crazy sharp teeth coming thru. I’ll try to post a pic to help. They look very similar to me.

 

[MrsE88]

Jags aren’t my area of expertise, so I can’t help there.
But welcome to the forum!

 

[islandguy11]

Yes, welcome to the forum! Unfortunately I also couldn't tell you if that's a male or female Jag (I'm sure someone who can will come along), but he/she certainly looks to be turning into a proper bad-*ss.

 

[duanes]

My guess is the one in the pic is not a true Parachromis managuense(true name for a jaguar cichlid) but its a hybrid.
True managuense don't have those dark prominent bands (Stripes).
And with hybrids gender distinctions can become blurred, and difficult to discern.

 

[BIG-G]

Welcome to MFK!
I’m going to disagree. I have seen some jag females with some pretty prominent black bars maybe not quite as dark as the photo.
But , I can see were this may be a fish that is stressed out and showing some more barring then normal.

 

[Hendre]

Welcome to MFK!

 

[BirdieBoo]

Thanks for the welcome guys! It’s really nice to finally get the courage to join here and share this crazy hobby lol.

I agree that the banding is unusual... I’ve not been able to find other jags online that have such strong markings even a juveniles. However I’ve met both parents multiple times and they definitely looked like normal jags. The store was broken into and all the tanks smashed otherwise I’d show you a pic of Mum and dad. I’d hate to find out they are a hybrid, what could they have been crossed with?

As for stress... they always look this way and have established their rank in the tank so cruise around untouched for the most part, if anything they get paler when stressed ... such as at water changes etc.

So confused...

 

[PYRU]

Welcome.

Appears like a very stressed female. Here's one for comparison by another member here.

 

[BirdieBoo]

What could cause the stress?¡'

 

[PYRU]

What could cause the stress?¡'

No telling. Water parameters off, Tankmates, etc etc.

Usually when they're that dark something's off, but who knows. Here's a pic of my old male. If he got spooked you could see the bars and he would be really dark.