Ok so I have had my Dovii for a few months maybe early this year. There hasnt been too much in the color department at all. Well until recently, I noticed that my biggest Dovii (pushing 6 inches) is starting to get the blue on the edges of its fins. Now do females get the blue color too? I really want it to be a male but I'm still not sure. I heard that they dont really show till about 5 inches or so. Someone else on here said you can tell if there is spots on the anal fin. Well the biggest one has spots on all its fins. I also have two smaller dovii, One showing spots on it's anal fin and the other none that i can see. There pushing 2 inches or so. Anyway just trying to figure this fish out. I was also reading that even at 2 inches someones dovii was already really blue. Anyway any help would be great. Worse case scenerio I'll just wait it out.

K. Dovii when around and inch and a half will start to show some color some of time (breeders useually hold on to the first few fish that show good color) and this is noticable only occasionally. A good mixed diet will also bring out color as well as mood. Female dovii will show some color but not even comperable to a male. At 6 inches your dovii should be getting some really nice coloring on them. Oh and as far as sexing with the anal fins spots, this is not always the case. I too have heard that every member of the parachromis family can be sexed this way and I have a jag female that has spots on her anal fin, and I have a buddy who has a female dovii with spots on her anal fin. The best way is to vent them (google venting fish for more info) I'm no pro at this and have personally never done it. The way I find out what the sex of my fish are is by putting 6+ fish in the tank and watching them. I hope I was more helpful then confusing!!! Cheers.

Anthony,

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it. Before I used to just get fish, but when I seen the dovii I wanted to get a little more serious about keeping fish. I'll look up the venting thing. Thanks again.

No problem. Good luck.