Venting a cichlid

[Steve]

Okay anyone has any advice when both "openings" look the darn same size/shape?

I've never vented a fish before, but after losing my fav fish (mbamba bay male) now Blair has one which I may get if I don't have a male still in the tank. I have two females (for sure) but one 3.5" I was sold as a female, but the colors are now looking vert bright blue and tipping yellow, so I want to make sure it's a female and not a male before I take another male.

So this evening I tried venting it, I netted it (took awhile lol) and put it in a bucket, then in the net finally got it in my hand and flipped it over to look. I read all the stuff about how to vent...but I swear it was hard enough to see any "vents" and then when I think I did, I could not tell one bigger/different shape from the other.  Is the difference that subtle? or am I just not seeing what I should be?

[danielratti]

sometimes female fish will become dominate and show signs of a male fish. Ive had two different fish that were for sure females show color in the face but ended up holding eggs.

When venting I like to use a lot of bright light to make it easier to see the vents oo is generally male and oO is female. With darker color fish you want to look at the anal fin and look for the lighter color marks above it. A magnifying glass helps sometimes too.