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Hey Everyone,

I have plenty of fish & alot of tanks. Mainly 55gal - 85gal tanks with Dempseys, Oscars, Jewels, & one is a Community Tank. Recently, I had a 37gal Eclipse System become open (no fish), so I wanted to try something "new" (to me). I was reading other posts & really liked what I saw & read on Convicts. So I decide to get me a pair. I have plenty of room in other tanks (I have a total of 8 tanks) when they have babies & etc.

My question is, how do you tell a male Convict? I read on here that the mature males have a bump on their head. I also saw where the females have red scales on their bellies. I am definate I got a female. She has beautiful red scales (and yellow) on her belly & is beautiful. The other one, I am not sure he is a male yet,lol. He does not have any red scales on his belly but he does have some yellow ones on it. So far, it seems the female chases him (if it is a him) around, doesn`t hurt him or anything. So, is this the way a male & female act/look? They are still young ones but I was wondering if anyone knew?

when small it can be difficult to tell if a convict is male. if there is no orange scales on the belly it could just not be mature or nowhere near breeding time. once they hit 1.5-2" though females will almost always have orange bellies.

males won't start developing a nuchal hump until ~3" if not larger. I had a ~4" male with a nice sized nuchal hump but one day my 7" male festae took exception to him and well, that male con is no longer with me.

Just wanted to add that from the behavior you described the other fish could be either male or female. the known female could be chasing a male indicating she is ready to spawn. on the other hand if the other fish is female the 'known' female could be chasing her out of her territory so that no competition is around should a male come along.

Jason

[span class="edited"][Edited by jason_r_s 2004-08-12 06:25][/span]

Yeah, thats what I thought too. I appreciate the response alot, thank you!!