Festae sex?

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vjayshutterbug

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jul 5, 2010
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Boise, Idaho
I managed a better picture of my newly adopted Festae. I'm not really seeing the black in the dorsal fin. The concensus earlier was female, but the picture sucked.
Now thinking male?

I'm a total red terror newbie, so any input would be much appreciated.
It's about 7 inches, and atm solo in a 75.
If it's male, for certain I need to look around for a bigger tank. ?
Thanks!

DSC_0138.JPG
 
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Yup, not enough blue spots in the dorsal tail and anal fins to be male. Black in the dorsal is a breeding dress. The black in the dorsal can be green/blue without a male cichlid in the tank
 
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I would guess female. As mentioned, males have that iridescent spangling in the unpaired fins and all over the body. Also females have a dark blotch on the front of the dorsal fin.

Here is a male I had as an example.20190601_221719.jpg
 
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Body shape looks male to me. At 7" a female is approaching adulthood and yours looks like adolescent male. Color/spangling can be deceiving. Some (not often) female have spangling and some males dont. Focus on shape and tell me you don't see male? Also at 7" I'm sure that fish is 2+ years old. Females start laying eggs around 5" and 1.5years. if you focus on color the red around mouth, lack of spots on fins and greyish color on dorsal all point to female but my experience says male.
 
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That's a male. At 7", a female festae would have darker, solid pelvic fins and more of the traditional female markings. In the picture below of my last grow outs, I have three famales and one sub-dominant male at around 5". You can see how the female markings are visible in all of the female fish at that size. This male stayed the subdominant green color until he outgrew the others and became dominant. Then he turned the golden red color that your fish is. If your fish is solo, then it's the dominant fish.
20201024_093014.jpg

And here is the dominant female from the pic above with the same male.
20211205_184948.jpg
 
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Male . It just happens to lack spangles spots.
Body shape and golden green hue screams male to me.
Also lacks dark dorsal and peck fins that are known female traits.
 
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