Sexing - Central / South American Cichlids

[dr exum]

My goal was to get a pair of each and keep the females in one tank and males in another - and have a 150g for a pair if needed - all currently 3”- 4” in 125g

I’ve got 2 ea

EB Acara - 2 boys?
JD -
Jag - sadly looks two boys ??

and was only able to find 1 GT which i believe male -

theres at least 1 girl i believe as someone started building a nest -

going to post 1 pic at a time for ease of ID

Thanks All ??

Bigger JD

 

[dr exum]

Here’s the jags

 

[dr exum]

here is the GT with the bigger JD

 

[dr exum]

some of the EB Acara -

 

[Deadeye]

Jd is definitely a male, the total lack of blue bearding makes it easy.
I’m pretty sure the gt is a male because of the patterning on the fins.
I’m not sure if there’s an easy way for acara, and I don’t know enough about jags to help there.

 

[Jexnell]

I'll help where I can.
Jags I don't know so sorry no help there.
EB Acara are too simular to tell M from F, like Oscar's wait till someone drops eggs, then you will know.
JD is a male, lack of blue beard tells the story.
GT is a male as well. Males have very visible markings in the unpaired fins, while females have these markings they are very muted.

 

[dr exum]

some more of the JD -

one of the EB’s definitely has his vent down -

google says something about the extension of the dorsal fin towards the tail ?

looking like lots of boys ??

there is a jewel cichlid in here…. hopefully that’s not the girl they are fired up for ?
gotta bone up on sexing before getting more….

never kept any of these before - must say they don’t disappoint

-shop keeper claimed each was m/f -

 

[Jexnell]

Here are some pics of a female JD.

Here in breeding dress you can clearly see this blue beard we talk of.
In non breeding colors its a bit harder to see the beard. But as compared to males that have almost no coloration here it's hard to miss.

Here is a male GT, you can see how the markings in the unpaired fins is bright with metallic elements .

Here is a female

 

[Deadeye]

I will say that my male jd has always had very strong blue bearding:

A female would have more blue blotches on the fill plate.
I believe there is also a difference in profile. As you can see, @Jexnell’s female had a rounded head, while a male has a sharper snout and concave head:

These differences don’t show up till a bit later on though. This was mine when I first got it:
And a few months after:
A year after I got it:

 

[dr exum]

thanks guys!

think i know what to look for -gonna head back to LFS ?