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are my jack gona make babys?or do I have 2 boys?

23 11:32:32

Question
my jack dempsey fish fight and fill the tank with sperm for the last 4 weeks. before this they have been together over a year with no fighting each other. I recently put them alone 2 and half months ago in a 29 gal smaller tank...I have seen any eggs.
The one I just knew was a girl is getting torn up her face is white now do to losing finns around her mouth. the  one I have been sure was a boy has visible teeth.....they fight for 15 minutes then they huddle together at the bottom I just knew I was going to get babys ..But have never seen eggs.... I'm worried I have two boys now....five minutes ago I moved the girl to another tank cause I'm worried he can bite threw her face now that she has lost so much fins around her mouth....My wife says I just blew my chance at babys....
what they look like:  he has a smoth chin with no brite blue on it
she has blue lines on her chin... I read some where that was how you sex them .  have also read the cant be sexed with out picing them up and looking in vent before anus..have not done this...She is 4 or 5 years old he is 1/2 inch longer and puchased this size a 1 1/2 ago

Answer
Hi Jeff,
 The lines on the chin do not indicate sex in Jack Dempseys.  You can look at the vent (just in front of the anus) but you have to know what to look for and you need quite a bit of experience.  
It is not simple to tell the sex of a Jack Dempsey.  The biggest difference is in the overall body shape and how they carry their weight. Males are longer and have a straighter, more rectangular profile, while a female carries her weight more in the belly and is more roundish in profile.  Unfortunately you have to have seen a lot of fish before this is obvious.  

 As long as they are fighting face to face, then things are okay, even though it can get very rough. The problems come if one fish gives up and the other keeps chasing it. If that happens, you absolutely need to separate the fish or one of them will soon be killed.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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