Festae - Male or Female?

[ditm10]

Need some help sexing this festae. How can you tell the difference?

 

[weedamese]

I'm not really good with Festae's but I would say male. Not sure tho i'll leave it for the experts

 

[HerCrenVie]

Female.

 

[Red_Terror]

Female

 

[SBrown]

female

 

[nolapete]

I see more indications for male than female, but hard to tell. The finnage and blue spangling on the body along with mostly green coloration indicate male. The barring is probably why most are saying female, but both my proven males display bars most of the time. I'm going to go against the flow and say male for those reasons.

I'm interested in details rather than just seeing someone say female. Back it up peeps.

 

[Red_Terror]

I see more indications for male than female, but hard to tell. The finnage and blue spangling on the body along with mostly green coloration indicate male. The barring is probably why most are saying female, but both my proven males display bars most of the time. I'm going to go against the flow and say male for those reasons.

I'm interested in details rather than just seeing someone say female. Back it up peeps.

My reasoning for female is the barring and the coloration of the top fin. However the fin shape says male to me a little bit more than female.

 

[ditm10]

wow, this is split pretty even so far. How do I figure this out?? I can try to take more pics if that helps.

 

[nolapete]

My reasoning for female is the barring and the coloration of the top fin. However the fin shape says male to me a little bit more than female.

And you therefore are correct, the dorsal fin coloration is the only true determination of male or female. I knew it was a female all along, but it was a trick question.

I've seen males that are so red and barred you would think they were females. Only the dorsal coloration proved otherwise.

The pair in my avatar (Katrina killed them) show perfectly this distinction.

 

[BC in SK]

Probably the best indicator for female in RT, once the fish is past the very young juvie stage, is the dark/black coloration of the first part of the dorsal fin. Never seen or heard of a male RT that pocesses this trait.

The fish in question apears to have the first part of the dorsal fin black, but the first part of the dorsal fin in the picture is down so, actually, you really can't tell for sure. Otherwise the fish has traits more typical of a male: yellow coloration, blue spangling, green on the face, and longer finnage.