Help sexing Threadfin Acara

[getmethatgeoplease]

Hi All!
I have 4 Threadfin Acara and was hoping someone could give me tips on a reliable to way to sex them if that’s even possible. I’ve read the females are more full bodied but that is super hard to tell for me. It may be cause they are juveniles still, not sure.

If anyone can help that would be greatly appreciated. Here is one of them in the pictures. I have to still get better quality photos of the rest of them so let me know angles I should try and achieve.

 

[uhohzombies]

They don’t really have any external sexual differentiators, unfortunately.

 

[getmethatgeoplease]

They don’t really have any external sexual differentiators, unfortunately.

Thanks! I kind of figured that but was hoping someone else knew something I didn’t.

 

[Rocksor]

duanes

 

[duanes]

It looks to me to be female at first glance, because males forehead profiles are usually are steeper.
But unless there are other Acarichthys in the tank these difference are not always apparent, or if some other Geo's are dominant, a less alpha Acarichthys individual could instinctually suppress certain dominant traits.
Also it can take 3 years for Acarichthys to fully mature.

The pair above are about 3 years old, and if I remember right the one on the left is female, right male

 

[getmethatgeoplease]

It looks to me to be female at first glance, because males forehead profiles are usually are steeper.
But unless there are other Acarichthys in the tank these difference are not always apparent, or if some other Geo's are dominant, a less alpha Acarichthys individual could instinctually suppress certain dominant traits.
Also it can take 3 years for Acarichthys to fully mature.

The pair above are about 3 years old, and if I remember right the one on the left is female, right male

Here are the other three. Maybe this will help differentiate them?

 

[Magnus_Bane]

Here are the other three. Maybe this will help differentiate them?View attachment 1406396View attachment 1406397View attachment 1406398

Looks to me like the males get a sightly Fuller face then the females do. Looks like the females kind of have a slight dip inwards just past the lower jaw while the males are more rounded and fuller in that area.

 

[duanes]

The one in your last pic looks like it might be male to me, and as Magnus suggests females less slope.
If your intent is to breed, provide tunnels in the form of @3" diameter PVC pipe, maybe 2 to 3 ft long.
In nature, they spawn in tunnels Pleco's previously dug to spawn in.
Note the head shape, slope in the male below.

When mine started a spawning rut, they killed each other, a person who was successful breeding them suggested my 150 tank was too small.
He was successful using 220 gal as being minimal size for breeding.
There is an article in Cichlid News Magazine from Oct 2006 that has great info and photos, and is available as a back issue

 

[getmethatgeoplease]

The one in your last pic looks like it might be male to me, and as Magnus suggests females less slope.
If your intent is to breed, provide tunnels in the form of @3" diameter PVC pipe, maybe 2 to 3 ft long.
In nature, they spawn in tunnels Pleco's previously dug to spawn in.
Note the head shape, slope in the male below.

When mine started a spawning rut, they killed each other, a person who was successful breeding them suggested my 150 tank was too small.
He was successful using 220 gal as being minimal size for breeding.
There is an article in Cichlid News Magazine from Oct 2006 that has great info and photos, and is available as a back issue

I actually don't want them to breed because I was reading about this in a different thread on here (maybe it was your dilemma!) and I definitely don't have a large enough aquarium for breeding right now.