MalawiMayhem: Sex of Sciaenochromis fryeri??

[zoostation1973]

ok, from my Gallery thread, I've gathered that both these fish are Sciaenochromis fryeri, even though the LFS has them labeled as Copadichromis azureus.. PetsMart even has them labeled as Copadichromis chrysonotus...

Anyhoo, any way to tell what sex they are? bottom one has egg spots, but the older one up top doesn't? Is it a female? :confused:

http://home.earthlink.net/~stevie123/images/Azureus.jpg

http://home.earthlink.net/~stevie123/images/Azureus_Sunshine_Brichardi.jpg

[MalawiMayhem]

Female S. fryeri can show egg spots in addition to some blue, however, nothing close to the blue the males display.

As for your fish below.....it kind of reminds me of an Aulonocara shape but still has the semi-elongated body of a Sciaenochromis (not 100% sure it is pure). It also is showing a good amount of blue in the face....almost too much for a female, I would say.

Was this fish another PetSmart special?

[zoostation1973]

Top one LFS, bottom one Petsmart (hey, what can I say.. $40 vs. $4 :) )

[MalawiMayhem]

yup...don't expect too much from the $4 fish... ;)

[Bootlegger]

I do not think the LFS is fryeri, at least not pure. I am not sure why it could not be azureus. Here is a link to some good pics:

http://images.google.com/images?q=Copadichromis%20azureus

As for the Petsmart fish, it looks Aulonocara to me and the angle could be distorting the length of the fish. The head does look some fryeri from the bottom view but the color looks sub-dominant male (Regal blue or something).

You never know with those Floridian pondichromis...