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[anno1685]

I recently vented a colony of Cynotilapia Afra Cobwes that are around 3 inches at the moment. To my surprise, a lot of the coloured up "males" were actually females. Pictures online show female cobwes to be a rather grey/blue fish, while the males have the half top orange. Although most of the mistaken boys that I have do not have such a strong orange cap, quite a few occasionally do! Have I vented wrongly or are these fish not as dimorphic as I thought? Thanks.

P.S. I easily identified my alpha male as well as my alpha female.

[RedCod]

At 3 inches, C. afra 'Cobue' would be considered full grown or close to as they are considered a dwarf mbuna. IME, sexing fish at this size should be obvious and there shouldn't be a need to vent the fish.

I find also that males will tend to show barring even in a subdued state while females will only occasionally display barring. The coloured cap in non-dominant males varies from dark blue to a dark orange. Females will occassionally, actually rarely, display a light blue body with strong barring (resembling a male) but I've never seen a female with the coloured cap that you find in males.

Hope this helps.