11 inch festae...boy or girl?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

twhittle

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Feb 8, 2007
1,810
471
122
Clarkston, Wa
I'm usually good at sexing festae, but this one has me wondering. It doesn't have the black on the dorsal fin in a pronounced way like most females, but its colors and pattern say female. I attempted a vent (which I suck at) and I think female...what do you think?

20200511_191046.jpg

20200511_190958.jpg

20200511_190730.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: triiiangle
Personally I would say this one is male just based of of the slight greenish hue I'm seeing form around it's head, mainly around it's eyes atm. Also the pearling I'm seeing suggests to me that it's probably male as well. Granted I could easily be wrong is I've never kept any myself, always wanted to tho, might some day. Either way it's a gorgeous fish and would love to see what ya could create breeding it with a flowerhorn or even one of the jags ya got in there.
 
This one definitely has me guessing...
 
This one definitely has me guessing...
Yeah definitely not an easy one. Usually it's pretty easy to tell the males and females apart but this one has traits of both so it definitely makes it confusing. Hopefully someone with a bit more experience will chime in and clear up the fog at some point. Still a very good looking fish and if it is male it's by far my favorite one so far. Not a huge fan of most male festae, definitely love the bright intense colors of the females more then the males slight green hue. IDK just never cared for the green color on them.
 
Male. The lack of black in the dorsal and the blue freckles make me think male.

I’ve also noticed in mine the females also have black peck fins and the males do not.
But this isn’t necessarily true throughout the species.
You can see an example of this in the photos above.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com