Do I have a male or female Jack Dempsey?

CallieDee

Hey to all,

I just recently purchased another Jack Dempsey for my tank, the girl at the store told me it is a male but I'm not sure I'm convinced. Could someone please help me identify the lighter one in the pictures below.

After looking at pictures of my first JD when he was brought home, he was a lot lighter than he is now and didn't change color all that much, if at all. Now his color drastically gets darker when he is feeding or gets excited, so just based on that I think that because the new one is still very new he will remain a light color until he gets used to the tank...is that right? Ugh I don't know how to tell the difference so if someone could help me that would be AWESOME!

Thanks in advance!

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This is the original JD..."Jack" (yeah I know I'm not very creative)

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This is both "Jack" and "Boris". I want to know if they are both males or one male and one female.

CallieDee

Oh by the way, I know that there are a lot of threads on "Is my JD a male or female?" Sorry for adding to that long long list, however every fish is different so I just want to make sure that I'm not just comparing my fish to someone else's and that I might be wrong.

fish monger

Can't tell the size and can't really see the fins in your photos. The dorsal and anal fins should be longer and pointier than a female's... reaching well back in the tail fin area. Let's wait for the cichlid experts to wade in here. My knowledge is pretty anecdotal.

Tazman

Impossible to say without a clearer picture of the total body and fins.

CallieDee

Ok I got some better pictures of my JDs.

This is the new guy
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This is the first one
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And this is both of them together
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Thanks again, hopefully these are better!

Tazman

Females generally have more blue on the gill plates, so the one with the most blue is the female.

anthonym5280

To me they both look like females the fins are too short and the colors dont look like males im no expert but i have had jds for the past 4 years and those look like my female i had how old are the fish
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