sexing shellies

[Scrup]

Get your mind out of the gutter.

Any way to tell the sex of juvenile shellies? Namely brevis and occies? Just some pics might help. The LFS has some in, but they are clueless, and will not take returns (getting sick of the BS from these stores).

any help would be great. Thanks!

[Sarkazmo]

If they're anything like Neolamprologus Multifasciatus then no. The only difference with N.Multi is the size of the adults. Males are considerably larger than females.

Sark

EDIT: Quote from Worldofcichlids.com on N.Brevis

"These are one of the easier shellies to sex once you've figured out how despite what many articles say. Once they are sexually mature the difference can be quite obvious.

There is a large size difference between adult males and females and also juveniles of the same age males are nearly twice the size as females.

This feature is one of the most distinguishable to tell when you have a group together. The males stripes on the caudal peduncle (tail base) are much more pronounced and bolder than the stripes on a female.

The male has a much more faced up (sort of like an Altolamprologus mouth) mouth than females. The male has a much more rugged and angry looking face while the female has more delicate features."

[Sarkazmo]

And this from the same site:

"With most N. Ocellatus male and female can easily be told apart by the white edging on the end of the dorsal fin and along the anal fin. Males have no dorsal fin edge coloration or some gold at the beginning of the dorsal and colorless at the back of the dorsal. It is said that with some variants and with poor captive breeding that has been done this way of sexing cannot always be done. But in most cases it is an easy and reliable way of sexing them. Males get much larger than females and males of the same age are larger than females."

Hope this helps.

Sark