Want a cichlid tank

[Fishfirst]

Originally Posted by emc7

I try to discourage anyone from buying from a "mixed cichlid" tank. Much better if a store has genus and species name so you can research a fish properly. Some Petlands take my fish so they at least have discretion to use local suppliers.

Funny you say that... Petco's "electric blue cichlids" are Melanochromis johannis but they are labeled as Sciaenochromis ahlis

[Eraserhead]

They have made the same mistake at the Petco in my town too. They also have the Yellow Labs mislabeled.

[msdolittle]

Just bookmarking this thread.

[joe kool]

Yellow labs much over 1 1/2" are usually pretty easy to sex. Males will get a predominately darker black stripe in the dorsal (TOP) fin and more black in teh anal fin I've noticed in all that I've bred and kept that males tend to have what looks like a black stripe going through their eye as well. (it's actually 2 small dashes in the lighter color coupled with the black of the pupil makes it look like a black stripe or dash through their eye. None of the females have had this and most females will have little black in their anal fin until their are well into adulthood (3-5") with coloration is always a tad risky but in a tank of many of the same fish using these guidelines you should be able to get a group of 1 dominate male and 2 to 3 females with a possible sub-dominate male out of any tank with 10 or more yellow labs in it. You could also "vent" them, which is easily done but not always done correctly and they should be close to sexual maturity (1 1/2 to 2"). This is don by flipping them over and looking at the 2 holes at the back of their bellies, if they are the same size probably a male if the back hole (closest to the anal fin) is bigger then probably a female.
here's a good write up on venting:
http://www.thecichlidgallery.com/article_venting.htm

and here's some real photo's of someone venting fish (I know fish porn )
http://www.malawimayhem.com/articles_venting.shtml