Can You Sex These Angelfish?

[spitz006]

I have 3 fairly large male angelfish and 1 medium sized that I think is a female. To lower aggression I'd like to get a couple more females. This lady on craigslist just appeared and she has a bunch of different posts of ones that she's selling.. Babies/ breeding pairs/ etc. She's charging an arm and a leg but I'm trying to talk her down..

Anyways, do you think 6 months is old enough to sex them? I would like to go to her house and try to grab a couple females but she said they're not old enough to sex yet and I'm assuming she's somewhat knowledgeable about angels. (though I have kept them for like 8 years and have bred them)

http://fayar.craigslist.org/pet/2996483713.html

There's the link to the craigslist post. Although in the post she says they're "bigger than silver dolare"... In an e-mail to me she says "they are big"

What do y'all think?

 

[SleepyCanadian]

You can only sex angels when they are breeding. You know when their tubes are out

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[steakman]

It's pretty hard to tell when they are that small.
What you look for to determine their sex:
- Hump on the head (males have a larger humps, females have them too, but not too obvious)
- Males have an oblong shape for the bodies
- With the body shape looked like a triangle (male)
- With the body shape looked more rounded (female)
The problem is even you can sex them, putting a male and a female together will not warranty that they would pair up. They pick whom they want for a partner (fish don't do one night stand, do they? ... )

 

[spitz006]

Thanks. I'm not even trying to breed then, I'm just worried 3 males and 1 female is going to cause problems.

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[Discus Origins]

Here is a general hint you can look for, obviously observing tubes is the only 100% way. Look for the angle between the ventral and anal fin, in a female they would be more horizontal where males are usually more like a slant down.

 

[Achill3s]

3 males and one female will cause a lot of aggression. I had 3 males and 2 females and the aggression didn't stop. The more fish you add to the tank, the less territory there is for them. Adding more will not stop the aggression. More fish equals less room and territory. Its likely that adding more fish, you may get a pair, which will double the aggression in the tank as the pair will spawn eventually (may not be sucessful the first time) and will defend a much larger section of the tank. You could try rearranging the tank. This does cause a bit of aggression at first but once they settle into thier new territories, the aggression drops. Worked for me with 5 large angels in a 75 gallon. That is until I bought a couple of small severums.


And you can't sex angels until they spawn. There is always someone who will tell you otherwise but fact is, there are no real markings that give it away. I have tried to sex angels by looks and only discovered that i was wrong just about every time. Wait for the pairing and the spawning and their organs will give you the answer your looking for.