Sexing N. brichardi

[Billy Bob]

I've just aquaired a "pair" of fairy/lyretail cichlids last weekend, and I thought I had picked out a m/f pair. I think I may two males instead, with one just having longer fins than the other. I'm assuming this since they each stay to their own little section of the rock network, and are very territorial to each other. Is this assumption correct?

Could someone either explain or post a picture (even better) of the visable gender differences between male and female N. brichari?

 

[Speck]

Not sure this is much help but...
I've got a pair I raised up together, they were the same size but now the male is almost twice the size of the female. Their fin extensions are both the same--very long. The difference in appearance is size, the male is a bit longer and much bulkier in size and his face is a darker shade. As far as behavior the female stays close to the home territory, while the male stays on the outer boundaries more and chases away any intruders. They have spawned in my mainly Malawi tank but have difficulty defending their fry there. I recently tried moving them to a 10 gallon setup with alot of rocky caves for one month but strangely they both stayed on opposite ends of the tank and did not breed or interact hardly at all. So as this was very boring to see them hiding alone I moved them back to the main tank again to free up my 10 for other purposes. My male is 3.5 " the female a bit smaller.
I am sure if you do have a male and female they will get together soon as they seem to be easy to breed sort of like convicts. If not than you probably have 2 fish of the same sex. Just my experience as I have raised batches and batches of these fry up and I had no experience with breeding cichlids before brichardi.

 

[Billy Bob]

Speck- Thank you very much for your help, this is my first cichlid that I'm trying out, and the inforamtion you gave answered alot of my questions. Just one more question though. Do you notice any difference in the slope on the forehead in your pair of N. brichardi? Today I noticed that the fish with slightly shorter fins also has a steeper forehead and the other appears more elongated and has less of a slope. Today is also the first time they've been out in the open togehter, although they still seem to flare up a little (although it is decreasing) at each other. Right now they're maybe 2.5-3 inches.