sexing electric yellow cichlid?

electric yellow labs

Hey i have to electric yellow labs and im not sure if this is true but i think the males (at least mine) have a darker black strip on their top fin while my female has little/basically no black on her at all.

I checked on that after I had the same question some time back .From what I am told by a couple of breeders that the black strip tell tall sign is all a myth and that you can't really be sure what sex they are.

If your yellow lab has no black stripe or very little then it is possibly a hybrid, since yellow labs should have the black dorsal stripe, whether they are male or female. Sometimes a female's will be lighter, but that is not always true.

The only for sure way to sex them is to vent them or watch them breed. Males will usually be larger and more aggressive, but sometimes females can be like that too.

Also, they are harem breeders and you should have several females per male or else the male will harass the one female. They get very large (over 3-4") and should be in a larger tank.

-Diana

I agree with Diana - you have to vent them to know for sure. A 20 is pretty small even for less aggressive mbuna like labs. I don't know whether you'd have much luck breeding them in that small of a tank, even if you do have one male and one female. Usually the male will hound the female to death when there's only one female; being in such a small tank will only compound that problem.

Good luck,
Jim

I bred these for a bit, and I could never sex them without venting. The black stripe is just a complete fairy story

Here'san article venting some Africans: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/gender.php

http://www.malawimayhem.com/articles_venting.shtml

more specifically, for a yellow lab. Keep in mind, it'll be nearly impossible to tell if they are young and have not yet spawned.