Need Help ID'ing My Firemouth

[ttuner]

Hello all, this is my first post here and I just got back into the hobby after several years out of it due to the first few years of college. I started with a 90g community tank as I acquired some fish from my mother's coworker. I also purchased a young Firemouth about a year ago, roughly 2" in length. At about 4" it was time to move it to its own tank, a 20g long with no other inhabitants. Once in this tank, the color of this beautiful fish really came out. The tank was more densely planted and lower lit compared to the old tank. I believe it is a male due to the extended end of the dorsal fin and bright coloring. I would like someone to take a look at the attached pic to see if my guess is correct. I have noticed that the Firemouth has also started to build what looks like a nest as it has moved a section of the rocky substrate out of the way forming a pit down to the glass bottom of the tank, about a baseball sized area in the corner of the tank. Your help is greatly appreciated and how big will a partner (male or female) need to be for breeding? Thanks in advance!

Having trouble posing my URL for pics so here is website with the pics . Sorry for the large size, but I do not have image editing sofware on my new laptop yet.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

Looks like a female to me. Females are plumper and more compact than males. Both sexes have dorsal trailers but most of the males I've seen have much longer trailers than that, but fin length and coloration are not reliable means of sexing these fish. If it displays/spreads it's gill covers to other fish or even it's reflection, it may be a male...but I'm leaning towards female here.

 

[ttuner]

Yeah I never have seen my Firemouth display the gill covers, which I have seen in some pics of males. Does the female primarily take care of creating the pit? This was something that I thought would make sense for the female while the male protects the territory surrounding the nest. Thanks for the help so far.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

I've seen both sexes dig pits. But once the eggs are laid, most females stay with the pit and keep it clean. The males usually just stay nearby and guard against all intruders who come too close. Both parents will viciously guard the nest, however.

 

[MySpace Mike]

Both will dig the pit, mostly the female. Once eggs are laid the female tends to the nest while the male guards the surrounding area. Every so often the female will leave the nest for second or two, the male stay to gurd the nest. All FireMouths are known to Flare at each other, even if it's only a single pair in the tank. Your pics appear that of a female due to the plumpness of the belly, and the shorter fins, males tend to have longer fins. Here's a Pic of my Male FireMouth, notice the longer dorsal fin