# Is this texas cichlid a boy or a girl????



## Hezett (Jan 19, 2009)

*Is my fish a boy or a girl?*​
girl00.00%boy9100.00%


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## Hezett (Jan 19, 2009)

I can't for the life of me tell if my fish "houstin" is in fact a boy or a girl.
While he/she has aggressiveness, (s)he's not as aggressive as most of the texas cichlids i've read about. he/she is almost 3 years old. She doesn't seem to be developing the head lump that the males traditionally seem to... I had two uaru's in with it, they seemed to be like a pair, and my texas cichlid started digging a lot more holes than normal and sort of harassing one of the uaru's a lot. It didn't help much since i wasnt sure IF the uaru's were even a boy and a girl or the same sex or what, so I'm rather confused. someone else took the uaru's because i was just holding them for a while.
I'd LOVE to breed "houstin" but if you guys could help me tell what sex he/she is, that would be the first step in finding him/her a mate (not an easy task in these parts whether youre looking for a male or female anyway!)
Thank you so much for any help you can offer 
http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq18 ... 1232323629


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

It's a male. Females will have a black spot/splotch on the dorsal fin, males don't. Very easy to sex.


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## CiChLiD LoVeR128 (Mar 22, 2006)

Yep male! And a BEAUTIFUL male at that!  :thumb:


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## Hezett (Jan 19, 2009)

Ok soooooo
I just found by fluke some texas cichlids. after you told me that females have black on their dorsal fin, i noticed that all of these texas cichlids have black on their dorsal fins. upon finding someone experienced and knowledgeable, who also works there ( my boyfriend knows him from out of work and says this guy knows his stuff better than most pet store employees), and i was told that he had just sold the last female out of the tank with a male as a pair yesterday, and that he was pretty sure the rest of them are males, because their lips arent black...?
i sort of went against his advice because i figure a cichlid forum has more minds in it and mor combined years of experience. so i bought one anyway; i got the one with the blackest fin i could. its lips are a little dark, but again does that play a part in this? i realize it is hard to keep track of so many cichlids in a fish store. and I figure the people who keep and love and are familiar most with these SPECIFIC fish (you guys) would probably KNOW for sure.. it was nothing personal against the guy! haha! 
(also i bought a flowerhorn but at the moment he's in another tank because Houstin got how he is. So far, no aggression at all between the two of the texas cichlids! The new one is probably about 2.5 inches, and looks like a spitting image of my larger one except for dark black spots and black on his/her dorsal fin 
it's not a great pic but i thought i would present her anyway. hopefully the description i wrote will help. I really want to know!  boy or girl?
i'm willing to find out i was wrong, haha 
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r80/ ... G_0019.jpg


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Clearer picture would help, but looks like a female to me.

The guy at the store is nuts. I've never heard anything about black lips on a Texas.


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## Joels fish (Nov 17, 2007)

looks female to me too, but need better pics.


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## Hezett (Jan 19, 2009)

how about this
http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r80/Hezett/
i also tried to get a few that shows the size difference
we've made a nice cave that only the little one can get into because Houstin is pretty big and could be quite intimidating.

ps. the last two photos of are a flowerhorn i also got today, and of an unknown type of goby.


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