Mum has 2 cockatoo dwarf cichlids - one definately male and the second we bought as a female. However she is the same size as him now and has some colour - not as much as him though - is it possible she is a he? They dont fight and hang out together sometimes. Also when "she" was smaller she would go a sort of yellow colour all over although "she" hasnt done this in a while. They have never spawned

Tried to get pics but they both hide almost all the time!

Look at the dorsal fin - are the first few rays raised? Tail/anal fin - is it square or rounded? Females tend to be smaller (slow down from around 2-3cm long and end up being half the size of males by around 5-6cm long). And females also tend to have a cross hatching type pattern on their sides..

Unfortunately with most cichlids you do get "sleeper" males that have always been kept in with more dominant males and take on some female and some male characteristics until they get a chance to be dominant.

k so managed to get some photos of each and would love to hear your opinion

would love to see the pics

oops haha forgot to put the pics in!!

this is the one who we are unsure about - so what do you think male? or female?

and this is him - definately male

They are almost the same size - in these pics it looks as if the top one is smaller by quite a lot but in reality they are much closer in size.

Hard to tell with those pics being so small.. But even the top pic looks like the fish is very colourful in the absence of a better pic I would say that is a male as well..

male

Yea sorry about quality - she/he very shy even when in a net, she/he clamps all her/his fins :roll: Took like 10 pics and this showed off the fins and body best. If you go to my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/28110979@N05/ you can check out my photostream

If it appears she/he is a male does anyone wanna swap "him" (in top pic) with a female?