Sex and pics of male and female Oscars for comparison!

Question
Hi Ron. My name is Chuck and I am a huge fan of Oscars and try to learn as much as possible so as to better care for them. I currently have 2 Oscars. 1 albino and 1 red oscar both are about 12" in length and they are acting strangly to me, meaning behavior that I understand to be mating signs but unsure. They are digging holes together in bottom and tail slapping and occassionally lip locking which I believe from my research to be signs of mating. But from all my research I think that my Oscars are the same sex. They both have same type of dorsal fins as well as 2nd anal fins. The red Oscar has no eye spot and is slightly larger while the albino has a very bright eyespot. I was wondering if you could show me pics of a male and a female for comparison. Or direct me to a site that might have those kind of pics. I would just love to know what sex of Oscars I have and maybe a breeding pair. They do not fight with each other as to say they are both males but have been kind of showing dominance as of late. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hi Chuck,
 The bottom line is that you can't tell male and female oscars apart just by looking at them.  People say that they can, but they have a 50/50 chance of being right.  Oscars are what we call monomorphic meaning that males and females look the same. This doesn't mean that all oscars are identical, it just means that any differences you see between individuals has nothing to do with which sex they are.  

 All you can really do is wait and watch.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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