My Electric Yellow

[Warsong]

hey guys, i got an electric yellow and im just wondering how im supposed to tell male from female, ive only got 1 of them on its own and everywhere i look sayz that the males are large, but thats hard to tell if i only have 1 fish. the reason im wondering is because im thinking of buying another electric yellow to put in with the one i already have, if i do should i have 1 male 1 female, 2 males or 2 females, will it really matter, i dont aim on breeding them i just thought the little guy might benifit from having a friend.

[hockeyref88]

How big is the tank?? If your not breeding it really wont matter.

[hockeyref88]

Wow............. did I just notice you have him in a 5 Gal??? Way to small. 55 Gal Minimum.

[Warsong]

atm it should be right its only like 3 or 4cm long, soon ill put it in the other tank when i brought my new one, and still i wana know how to tell if its male or female

[hockeyref88]

They have to grow a lot to be able to tell for sure.

[RainMan]

You picked a tought one to sex... there is no way to do it until they are fully matured. Males are bigger with a more protruding forehead and IIRC they have darker or larger band of black on their lower fins.

Eitherway... you probably won't be able to sex a single electric yellow cichlid without comparing to others. I had half a dozen of them around 2-3" and I couldn't tell the difference. I just assumed the largest fish was a male.

[sanddigger]

The only way to tell electric yellows for sure is to vent.