# Sex my Dovii... Please LOL



## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)




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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Wow...yikes.......bit more wow. 8)


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

Not sure if this helps but...
http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Dovii

Says black lateral lines are solid in males, which leads me to believe you have a female. But I'm certainly not an expert


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

All seven pictures are of different fish.


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## Chubbs the Jellybean (Jun 16, 2009)

That's what I get for being half asleep when I try to squint at pictures :lol:

The last one looks like a male to me


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Seems to be the popular answer:



> ok, then all but the bottom 2 are female and out of the bottom 2, the last is the best bet for a male. Almost 100% sure.
> 
> The other one might be, but I notice a lack of spotting in its body that the bottom one has.
> 
> ...


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## smitty (May 7, 2004)

It is really hard to tell but if I had to guess I would say a female.


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

This is a tough one! Mature dovii have different patterns. Male dovii have a stripe, that often fades away completely at an older age. Small black dots on the body above and below this stripe, is what typically characterizes a male, though. Especially small black dots ABOVE the stripe and on the dorsal fin, as these are usually absent on females. As well, males more often develope coloration between the eye and mouth (green or blue) at a n earlier age. 
Male pattern:








Note the spots above the stripe.

Female pattern:









Note the lack of spots and the body pattern, rather then just a stripe.

But I have to note that when sexing young dovii it is NOT always 100% accurate. A couple years back somebody had a young female dovii that everybody on MFK and cichlid fourum, including myself, said it was a male.....but it laid eggs :lol: It had lot's of coloration on the face, spots on the body and a stripe,though I can't recall if it had much spots above the body stripe.

As well, I'm not too surehow reliable the pattern would be to sex young dovii when a net is close by them........Obviously they would be in a scared state so the pattern of marking could be showing up or fading, and may not nessessarily be a good reflection of what the fish usually exhibits. But these are my guesses and reasons for thinking one way or another. Not too sure on any of these, though:
1)female---lack of dots, female pattern.
2)male-----dots, stripe.
3)female-----lack of dots, female pattern,somewhat
4)male---dots, color on face.
5) male----dots, color on face
6)male----dots, stripe
7)male-----dots, stripe
If you ever do get a chance to see their sex organs protruding, you would know for sure. male dovii have the largest organ I have ever seen on a male cichlid. Disproportional to the size of their body, especially at a young age ----very long, pointed and curved.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

So what you're saying is it's not as easy to sex them as I or others thought... It was difficult to photo them in their non-flight coloring... I'm almost curious to keep them much longer than anticipated just to grow them up and see their sex... It is in agreement that the last one is a male across all of the forums I belong to. There's also been many who chose not to read and thought the pictures were of the same fish! LOL

When you say the sex organs are curved, which way? Towards the snout or towards the caudal?

I'm still flabergasted that the male is the smallest of the group...


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

TheFishGuy said:


> So what you're saying is it's not as easy to sex them as I or others thought...


Yes, definately! :lol: Generally, the look of a juvie is pretty much that of a female; and then males start to indicate by losing the vertical stripes and exhibiting spots as well as more coloration on the face. So generally with a group it's one of the males that it's sex should become obvious first.

But I use this example from a couple years back that I mentioned in my last post, because pretty much everbody thought it was an obvious male, and it turned out to be a female. And it definately looked much more male then any of your 7 do :lol:

It would be quite odd to get a group of 7 CA cichlids and get 6 females and only 1 male with the only male being the smallest of this group! Of course it is possible but not that likely. If there is at least 1 other male that is larger then at least some of the females, then that would be a lot more plausible. Certainly at this age, the largest in your group are not nessessarily males.....your group may not have come from the largest in the batch(?).

The male organ is curved from front to back, so I guess from snout towards the caudal..... but it still points down. Of course even the male organ goes through phases but you generally expect, especially over the life of a male, that some amount of tube will be protruding most of the time. Females......quite often they are in a state where nothing is protruding. If you have more then 1 male in your group, I would think chances would be very high of seeing some tube being exhibited over the course of even a week or two.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Well, I got this group a while ago and they have bounced around from tank to tank and have not had much attention put on them. Now that my stock is starting to get moved I thought I'd finally take a look at them and the day that I did there was what I thought to be a male guarding eggs. It wasn't until someone on the CRC saw the photos and said it was a female guarding that prompted me to get photos of each individual fish.

You were the only one to notice the stress pattern on the fish from the net being in the tank. I was attempting to get shots of them before the stress patern occured...

At any rate, as it stands right now they are all in seperate tanks untill I can squeeze more time in to mess with them. I'm planning to empty quite a few more tanks so I can get two 180's into the fish room. Once that happens I will put the group back together in one of the 180's and see what happens. They are my oldest group at the moment. I also have chanchos, freddys and robertsoni growing out but they are all between 1-2 inches, plenty of time... I fear I'm running out of time with the dovii...


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## bernie comeau (Feb 19, 2007)

TheFishGuy said:


> It wasn't until someone on the CRC saw the photos and said it was a female guarding.


That was my innitial thought as well, when I first seen the pictures. But I remember the male looking female juvie from a few years back and actually that SHOULD BE a fairly sure thing when a juvie looks male. A female looking juvie is always possibly, an as of yet, undeveloped male.

But a male chasing away a female and taking over egg tending duty is fairly uncommon. The number of times I have seen male CA tend eggs, I could count on the fingers of one hand. Of course tending fry or wrigglers, males can be just as involved, and have seen males chase away females many times during this stage. On the few occasions where I have had a female CA breed with a much smaller male..... usually the female chased the male away shortly after the spawning act. So I would really think, that this one is much more likely to be a female.

Pecking order, might(?) keep the males from exhibiting early, if the females are still more dominant in the group. Maybe you will get a better idea now that they are seperated. But I think observing the sex organs over the course of a few weeks would probably give you a pretty good idea. I use my reading glasses for this....... never needed them a year or two ago. I blame the computer :lol: for worsening my eyesight up close.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

LOL Thanks Bernie


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