hi i have 8 juv festae in a 100g growout,at what size will they pair up because to my surprize i have noticed that it seems two are pairing up,the biggest one of the batch is male i think going by his growth and green/blue spangles and the other one i think is female because it looks like they are courting and she is showing black bands and around half of the dorsel fin is darking,now this is where im confused the so called male is around 3.5 inchs tl and is much higher and wider than the rest,the so called female is around 3 inchs tl,thanks
festae pairing up?
- Thread starter convict84
- Start date
they havent cleared anything yet,she has a hint of red,under her mouth is starting to turn red,its when they are tail slapping and shaking at each other her bands turn blacker
I agree with fishluvr They look like males.You could have a female but can't tell yet.festae IMO are pretty frustrating buy its all worth it in the end
No they don´t all look like male. pic 1 is male, 2 and 3 is female, 4 is the pair and pic 5 and 6 is the female in the back. I think the best way to sex them is to look fore a black spot on the dorsel fin.
It sounds like they are pairing up very early
Good looking fishes. Congratulations
It sounds like they are pairing up very early
Good looking fishes. Congratulations
karri;4284720; said:No they don´t all look like male. pic 1 is male, 2 and 3 is female, 4 is the pair and pic 5 and 6 is the female in the back. I think the best way to sex them is to look fore a black spot on the dorsel fin.
It sounds like they are pairing up very early
Good looking fishes. Congratulations
Actually, when it comes to sexing young Festae, that rule does not apply. I've seen and even owned a young male Festae (<<the one in my avatar) with a distinct dark black bar on the front half of his dorsal fin. It went away as he matured but he fooled quite a number of people in his younger days.
I can't definitely sex these young Festae but if I had to guess, I'd say the one closest to the camera in each pic is male. This I'm judging by the spangling in the dorsal fin. Females only have five or six small blue spots at the aft part of the dorsal fin. These fish are showing spangling throughout theirs, yes even the one in the fifth picture with the black dorsal. They need to be a little older to be 100% sure though.
edit** The last one is very confusing lol.
balton777;4285222; said:Actually, when it comes to sexing young Festae, that rule does not apply. I've seen and even owned a young male Festae (<<the one in my avatar) with a distinct dark black bar on the front half of his dorsal fin. It went away as he matured but he fooled quite a number of people in his younger days.
I can't definitely sex these young Festae but if I had to guess, I'd say the one closest to the camera in each pic is male. This I'm judging by the spangling in the dorsal fin. Females only have five or six small blue spots at the aft part of the dorsal fin. These fish are showing spangling throughout theirs, yes even the one in the fifth picture with the black dorsal. They need to be a little older to be 100% sure though.
edit** The last one is very confusing lol.
+1!!! there are sooooooo many times i've seen threads on here of some super tranny festae that had almost all of us confused until it grew larger, black in dorsal is def not 100% when they are this young, if they are acting like they are spawning or preparing to then of course you most likely have at least one female as it isn't unheard of for them to pair this small but you will have to wait until they are larger or lay eggs to be 100% certain GOOD LUCK (unfortunately there is a much larger proportion of festae males to females so it is quite hard to come by a female)