Hey Festae experts, need some ID help...

[midtae]

Male Festae.Good find!

i agree.

 

[sbrady5pts]

hard to tell now, i was saying female because some pics look like the dorsal fin has black coloring just not fully developed. Whatever it is it is still a juvie

 

[twhittle]

Given that the fish is nealy 5 inches I would say male as well. Females at that size usually have more pronounced black dorsal and are developing their colors. I am sure he is stressed though if he is new.

 

[balton777]

Looks like a stressed male Festae to me.

*edit*Looking at him again he's probably going to be a good one. Once he's comfortable and you get him on a good diet, hopefully the blue body spangling will start coming in.

 

[balton777]

really hard to tell, but because of the slightly darker top fin, and extremely limited blue spangling i would say female

hard to tell now, i was saying female because some pics look like the dorsal fin has black coloring just not fully developed. Whatever it is it is still a juvie

I can see what you were seeing mostly in this one. The front half looks kind of blue but it doesn't go all the way down.

 

[Modest_Man]

I agree with male.

 

[terd ferguson]

I can see what you were seeing mostly in this one. The front half looks kind of blue but it doesn't go all the way down.

This is the pic that makes me believe 100% male. The other pics where people are seeing black in the dorsal I think is stuff in the background showing through the fins. It's hard to make a judgement from the blue spangling as both males and females have this trait.

But again, it's a good looking festae. I think in a couple of weeks he'll be a stunner.

 

[Angler]

I think it is hard to tell at that size.

When I posted the following pic of my old Festae on here, most people said it was a male:

I think it was around 3.5 to 4 inches at the time.


Now here is the same Festae a couple of months later:

So, my point is, don't let sub-adult Festae coloration fool ya

 

[Camphilophus]

100% male festae, females have much more red. Yours does show great colors for a male though, nice fish. Post pictures of it when its more settled in and less stressed out.

 

[dk66gt]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I took a couple of pics without the flash this time for you guys to check out. I'll post some updated pics in a couple of weeks also but there is some dark blue/black on the dorsal which made me think it was a female.

Thanks again for your expertise