Please help sex my Yellow Lab :)

[bettaman]

Well he/she's more orange than anything....LOL.

At first I thought it was a female - lack of black markings, etc. As the fish is starting to mature (still less than a year) I'm starting to see more and more black that wasn't there, specifically on the anal and pelvic fins. Also the black on the dorsal fin has dramatically become deeper and fuller.


What do you guys think? Is "Ms. Cichlid" really a maturing male?

:dive2:

 

[JSchmidt]

Look pretty reddish-orange for a yellow lab, but I guess that could be color shifting from the camera or a number of sources...

Anyway, I don't believe yellow labs can be sexed reliably from markings; they need to be vented. I've heard a number of schemes for using markings, but none have ever held true for my yellow labs.

Jim

 

[mooman]

ha, the color makes it look like a cross between a lab and a comet goldfish.

 

[bettaman]

A cross with a goldfish? Don't ever insult my fish. :

Well, this is something me and my GF joke about ALL the time. The fact that my Yellow Lab is pratically orange.

Rest assured, it is a yellow lab. When I first brought "it" from the store it was as yellow and tiny as ever. Over time I've noticed the color shift to the yellowish orange you see. I wonder if it has anything to do with the ColorBits I feed the fish occasionaly

Anyway, here's another pic for reference when the fish was much more yellow and black was not as pronouced.

 

[f8ldzz]

I think the fish might've been dyed.
The group of yellow labs I got mines from were pretty pale when they were small - i.e. under 1".
Once they get older, the yellow gets more intense.
I saw a bunch of TINY yellow labs at Wal*Mart - they were light bright yellow at 3/4"!!!
I seriously think they were dyed...

Yeah, markings are not consistent on yellow labs.
You need to vent them.

 

[f8ldzz]

Here are the cichlid venting articles...

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/gender.php
http://www.malawimayhem.com/articles_venting.shtml

 

[scholar]

Well, It looks to be female based on the slope of the head.

 

[bettaman]

I'll have to try and vent the fish then. It' confusing.

I don't believe the fish was dyed. I've been dealing with my LFS for a while and I don't think they would sell me a fish like that. "She" looked like every other yellow lab I've seen when I first brought her. Not a vibrant yellow but more yellow than she is now.

I really think the color change is due to these "color enhancing" foods I've fed the fish.

 

[bettaman]

For comparison, here is another Yellow Lab I got from the same LFS. This is exactly how my fish used to look in color - you can really see the difference between the two. I'll change the diet and see what happens.

Unfortuately I had to take the little guy back, any longer in the tank with the big guy and he would have been killed. The divider was a temp solution. I thought Labs were supposed to be mild.

:huh:

 

[f8ldzz]

Unfortuately I had to take the little guy back, any longer in the tank with the big guy and he would have been killed. The divider was a temp solution. I thought Labs were supposed to be mild.

How big is that tank?
Only had two?

I've got 1M / 2F in a 10G - this is not recommended.
Although the males chases the two females around a lot, I have a lot of decorations and several plants they can hide in.
The recommended ratio of M / F is 1:3, so you need more females or add more hiding spots for the fish.
Yeah, it helps to keep the yellow labs about the same size.
If the bigger one is significantly larger, I can see it hurting the smaller fishes.