# Star sapphire male or female?



## chiuey (Jan 12, 2017)

http://www.jerrinchiu.com/my-life/male- ... n-you-tell

Can you guys tell if the star sapphire is male or female? Also the red empress in the first picture? The star sapphire was the darkest in the batch and is only about 2" long right now.


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## chiuey (Jan 12, 2017)

Breeder thought it was a male since it was the darkest, however looking at the anal fins, they seem rounded. Aren't males supposed to be more pointy? Or is it just too young to tell about the anal fins.


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

They both appear female to me, but as you say they are quite small so it may take some time. Darkness in the star sapphires isn't linked with being male in my experience with them. The males will start to show blue in the lower jaw and then into the sides just behind the gills.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Looks like a female to me, my little males are cobalt blue and the stripes almost blend in.


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## BlueSunshine (Jul 13, 2014)

Hard to tell at that size. The color of your pics do not show the true color of the fish, may be the lighting you are using. Our females have a tendency to be darker at that size., males lighter color with a little blue showing. If all else fails, time will surely tell.
Nice fish!!


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Good point sunshine, I forget that I have a lot of blue in my lights and I keep it a little dimmer than most. But I turned up the white intensity and sure enough, my little guys are not as dark as they look with the light temperature the way it was. I'm evidently illiterate when it comes to these image hosting sites otherwise I'd post a picture, they're just barely starting to get a flake here and there.


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

Depends what you mean by dark, but if he had a tank of just juveniles a likely young male would be the biggest/most dominant with bold bars and a blue hint. Likely females would be less attractive markings, less blue. The bars don't fade until they get bigger than 3". Of course it is just guessing, but with most of the Malawi cichlids you can guess young males when raised together, two or three males tend to rise to the top of the group.

About the Red Empress, so far there is no sign of being a male that you can see from that pic. Young males would get a reddish vague eggspot color in the anal fin and you could see some shiny light blue in the dorsal as the fish moves about in the light.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Yeah protomelas species have a tendency to take quite a while to color up. I have a red empress male that I had doubts about until he was around 4"


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