Hi,

I have 7 crown Jewel Cichlids and am wondering how to sex them and how they breed if i need anything special for that. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Mark

how big is your tank? for your fish's sake i hope its huge. or 5 of them will likely be killed if you are succesfull in getting a pair

Easy to breed once you have a pair, which is somewhat difficult. Sexes are somewhat difficult to tell - generally, the males have more blue reflective scales than the females, who tend to have a deeper reddish hue with a wider girth. However, this is not always the case. Place one mature male with a number of mature females and watch for a pair bond to form, then remove the others as they will be killed if forced in close proximity to the eggs. The female will lay several hundred eggs on a flat surface - usually a dugout in the back of the aquarium, although you can provide flat rocks to encourage them. The eggs will hatch in a few days and the fry will be guarded in typical cichlid fashion. They can reproduce approximately every 3 weeks once they get going.


generally speaking the males are much more colorful than the females.

Are Crown Jewels and Jewel Cichlids the same thing? I have some that I call Jewels but the pics I found for Crown Jewels look like mine.
images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl...lifalili&spell=1

yes sins

yep thats what i have and i can't sex them they are in a 55 gallon with lots of plastic plants. i will have to put a piece of slate in there to help them along.

thanks'
Mark

Any other info would help

I was told the female would be slightly bigger and the male would have a sharper point on his dorsal fin, the female has a more rounded fin. It's still hard to tell though.

from my understanding they mate similiar to O's is that correct? Same h20 perameters and everything.

Thank you

Mark