Uh-oh... research led me to a bad sexing...

Dark Rose · Oct 5, 2014

My venustus is a girl isn't it?

5" long, over a year old, no blue anywhere, rounded yellow anal fin...

Sold as a male and told later it was male also, but apparently with venustus the females are actually the "brighter" and males get the blue face and more faded pattern...?

Looks like another incorrectly sexed or identified fish from the same seller. Glad they're out of business now... ugh.

Was totally clueless when I started my cichlid tank... now I'm just mostly clueless, lol.

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Spartacus · Oct 6, 2014

now we see why they're out of business. it is very common to sell these females because the markings do look good.same w/Borlyeis

fishnatics · Oct 6, 2014

My 5" female looks like that. For awhile I always thought that it was a young male hiding from the 9" male till 2 months ago came home from work and he was a she holding a mouth full of eggs!! Now I have 3 batches of fry!

Dark Rose · Oct 6, 2014

Yeah, the same place sold me two females that were supposed to be males, and at least two misidentified completely off the top of my head. A Blue Regal sold as German Red, and a Sunshine Benga Yellow sold as a Lemon Jake... I've also got a Blue Acai that may or may not be because I've been told they're somewhat hard to get and commonly misidentified (something else sold as them).

Bought 3 or 4 fish from them since they changed name and under new ownership with 0 issues.

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RD. · Nov 11, 2014

At 5" you would need to vent that fish for a definitive sexing. The anal fin shape & color has no bearing on m/f sex of venustus, and plenty of males that are late bloomers don't get the blue head until they become larger and more dominant and/or sexually mature.