How can you tell the difference between male and female cichlids?
The spots on the anal fin are not “always” a way to tell. I have had females with the spots and males (sub-dominant) without. Typically the males have longer more colorful finnage (dorsal, caudal and anal fins) and are a bigger, more robust fish. Although females tend to have a fatter belly just behind the pectoral fins (look from above). Many males have a bump on their foreheads called a nucchal hump. Some species have huge humps (frontosa for ex.) and some just a suggestion of a hump, like many of the mbuna (Malawi cichlids). Did you buy them from a mixed tank of cichlids? If so, there is no way to tell what the smaller brownish one is if it is a female. Females of “most” cichlids are typically smaller than the males of their species.
