Sexing

The sexing of this species is unknown. There are some speculations that females may be a bit plumper but it has not been confirmed

Blood Parrots are difficult to sex. The only reliable external details are the shapes of the genital papillae. Males will have a longer, narrow papilla than females, which have a shorter, rounder papilla. As with most other cichlids, the papilla on the male will be visible a day or two before spawning, whereas that on the female will be visible only a few hours before spawning. Otherwise, Blood Parrots cannot be sexed except by watching them spawn.

Flowerhorn cichlids cannot be sexed when young. Males should develop larger nuchal humps than females, but some males have small humps not much different to those seen on the females. Moreover, only a big, mature male will have this feature, and a cichlid will need to be a couple of years old for its nuchal hump to be fully developed. As with Blood Parrots, the only reliable ways to sex Flowerhorn cichlids is to either watch them spawn or to examine the genital papillae.