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I purchased two Convicts at my LFS today. i got a female, and a male.. every male i have had was very dark. the women at the shop assured me that the con in question is a male, but he is very light in shade, almost looks female but has no orange coloring..... has anyone ever gotten a male that was as light in color as a female?

Convicts are often when your first bring them home. Like many fich there colors change depending on stress, water quality, food in take. The Convict I currently have, was very pale when i first got it. Over the past several weeks, it's colors have development a lot. I still can not tell the sex though. Once they hit 2" you should know for sure though.

thanks for the info. im pretty sure he is a male. he is smaller than the female she chases him all over the tank...

yes, as scotrun said all fish and in particular SA/CA cichlids can change color depending on their mood. Convicts and other CA's will be very light in color when they are stressed and they'll turn very dark and their vertical bars will be very defined when they are showing aggression.

as for the female chasing the male around, what size tank are they in?

They are in a 29 gallon tank.... the female is about a 1/4" longer then the male.. the pair of convicts i had before did the same until the male was larger then the female and he became abusive to her so i put her in a seperate tank...

what size are they? My convict that i think is a male is a light shade right now cause i just got him. But the female remained dark..weird...I hope you got a pair just like i hope i got a pair! Good Luck

I thought the female's have some red on their belly and are lighter than the males. At least that's what I've read.

Here's one:
Common name - Convict Cichlid.

Scientific name - Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum.

Family - Cichlidae.

Origin - Guatemala, Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama.

Max size - 6".

Care - True to its name this is a very aggressive fish which is not ideal for a community tank, the tank should be at least 30 US gallons, with a temperature of 74-79 F. They enjoy plenty of hiding places. All rockwork and decorations
should be well seated, as the they will dig and displace them.

Feeding - Convicts will eat most forms of prepared food aswell as frozen and live foods. Vegtables should also be added to keep them in prime condition.

Sexing - One of the easiest cichlid to determine sex. During the breeding period females will have gold/red spots on her sides and belly. The males normally dark bars will become a metallic silver.

Breeding - Convicts are notoriously easy to breed. Ideally a species tank dedicated to just them will be the ideal situation. Females will lay between 40-100 eggs and it takes about 2-3 days before free-swimming fry are seen. The pair become very aggressive at this time and will not hesitate to attack any other fish which is "to close". Fry can be fed almost any form of "fry" food, aswell as crushed flake food and cucumber.Caution - while breeding pairs of convicts are usually good partners, there can be aggression among the pair. A method to seperate the pair if this happens is very adviseable

Females do develop red on their belly, but only when they mature. It will be obvious in a few months. Patience is a virtue, and vital in fishkeeping!