umbee sexing

[Opiate]

hey guys...

me n my mate are having great difficulty finding out whether our umbee's are male or female...lately they've been acting strange..i'll try to porvide some pics soon, but was wondering how big they have to be to actually determine there sex, at the moment there roughly 2.5-3 inches in length... what can we look for in order to do this..?

 

[big train]

They are to small to sex wait til they are about 6" and u might got a shot at it.

 

[roliva]

They are really tough to sex when young. Please post some pics.

Here are shots of two of my umbees @2.5". Male on left, female on right. The only difference I saw at this age was the difference in spengling reflect. Look how the male's spengling is a lot brighter.

Here is a shot of the male @3", again notice the spengling, and dorsal and anal extension starting to take off:

Here is a side by side comaparison, male on top @3.5", female bottom:

 

[big train]

That's some good pic's and comparisons and i can see the difference in the 2 but do u know at what size do they become sexualy mature?also do u think it is possiable that the female umbee may really be a male that is less colorful in order to submitt to the stronger 1 and also that the stronger umbee may be niping the others fin's making it look that way.

 

[cichlaguapote]

That's some good pic's and comparisons and i can see the difference in the 2 but do u know at what size do they become sexualy mature?also do u think it is possiable that the female umbee may really be a male that is less colorful in order to submitt to the stronger 1 and also that the stronger umbee may be niping the others fin's making it look that way.

There have been people who think they have males up til 12" because of all of the tell tail signs but end up with females. In short all the things posted here such as anal/dorsels getting longer, bronzing, great speckling and alot of blueing in the fish, are all signs of a male but there is no sure thing with sexing umbies until they're bigger.

 

[big train]

I was kinda beating around the bush i don't feel confident in sexing cichlids until i see somebody laying eggs unless it's somthing obvious like a convict.

 

[the animal guy]

nice!!

 

[Dave Counts]

Hi, I have a fairly mature 7" Umbee that I can't tell the sex of, can you please tell me if it is male or female and how to tell the difference?

 

[roliva]

My guess would be female.