New odd coloring on 2 electric blue Jack Dempseys

[Fishie Mama]

Recently I noticed this red coloring on the tips of 2 of my fish’s dorsal fins. They’re in different tanks and eat different food. My third fish doesn’t any changes. I took a photo of my tiny female fish Eleanor in lighting that shows the discoloration. My adult male won’t let me get a good photo of his fin. We have well water but this change only started about a week ago. I’m attaching a photo of my tiny female Eleanor. Any ideas how this happened?

 

[Fishie Mama]

F

Recently I noticed this red coloring on the tips of 2 of my fish’s dorsal fins. They’re in different tanks and eat different food. My third fish doesn’t any changes. I took a photo of my tiny female fish Eleanor in lighting that shows the discoloration. My adult male won’t let me get a good photo of his fin. We have well water but this change only started about a week ago. I’m attaching a photo of my tiny female Eleanor. Any ideas how this happened?

View attachment 231429

in got a close up picture of my male’s fin.

 

[fishorama]

Red tips on dorsal fins are normal for Dempseys. I don't remember if females get that too...maybe Eleanor will turn out to be a young small male? "she" may be too small to tell yet...hard to say...

 

[Fishie Mama]

Red tips on dorsal fins are normal for Dempseys. I don't remember if females get that too...maybe Eleanor will turn out to be a young small male? "she" may be too small to tell yet...hard to say...

Thanks for the info. I know that it’s too early to really tell the sex of Eleanor. If she turns out to be a boy I’ll just use the name Lenny

 

[Fishie Mama]

I just came back from the aquarium where they had some really large electric blues and they ALL had red tipped dorsal fins! I feel so much better now!

 

[fishorama]

Well, the larger fish are likely males so I'm not sure that red tipped dorsals means much as to sexing them. I did a quick google & didn't see any I'd call postitve females with red tips. Could be...I didn't look very hard...& google pics, meh. Males get to be almost twice as big as females. The male fry grow larger faster in a group than females so there will likely be more males...with the survival of the biggest thing happening...

Relax & enjoy your Dempseys. They'll sort it all out sooner or later. You really don't want more than a M & F pair...they can breed like rabbits or worse! That sounds fun but isn't really...they can breed every month or more...eventually 50-100 fry each time. We had trouble selling or even giving away several cichlid species...Be careful what you wish for!! I'm serious!!