Male Female QUestion
- Thread starter JONP
- Start date
Peacocks, if they have no color, female (assuming they are of any real size). Yellow labs, no true way except venting or just waiting till a female is holding. Don't know about compressiceps.
So basically haps/peacocks easy to tell. Mbuna, well often the males are different colors than female.
But they have to be of the size where they start to color up or start to change color, and of course that size always depends on things. IE in a tank that a peacock feels safe in I have an ~1 inch guy showing more color than a 4 inch guy in a tank where he is scared.
So basically haps/peacocks easy to tell. Mbuna, well often the males are different colors than female.
But they have to be of the size where they start to color up or start to change color, and of course that size always depends on things. IE in a tank that a peacock feels safe in I have an ~1 inch guy showing more color than a 4 inch guy in a tank where he is scared.
I was told at my local store, really dull colored fish are likely to be the female? I was also told that if they have dots on their dorsal fins they were males. He said that the dots would trick the females?
Would these fish cross breed?
I appreciate the information...
Would these fish cross breed?
I appreciate the information...
Dots don't always work... mbuna and peacocks/haps all cross breed with similar species and sometimes with ones you wouldn't even think were possible.
And yes most females have less color to no color for peacocks/haps (IE they are brown).
Give me a little and I will post some peacock females, and for males just look here: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92763
And yes most females have less color to no color for peacocks/haps (IE they are brown).
Give me a little and I will post some peacock females, and for males just look here: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92763
Well can't edit so here is a vid of females. I basically just focused on them and the first one definitely has spots. (I know all the ones I picked were females since they have held. I can only guarantee that the peacocks are pure German Reds everything else is petsmart quality. (Note the vid is ok, but I basically did what I could to get the fastest form of picture up.)
Female peacocks/mbuna link
Female peacocks/mbuna link
Is the amount of black on the dorsal and ventral fins a way to sex Labs? The color difference in Peacocks is easy to tell, comps. I don't know.
I have females with egg spots and the amount of black on a Yellow Lab. is not a way to sex, And finally, many of the fish that I see at the fish stores are sub adult. some males just starting to show color. Or at the big box chains, hormone fed fish showing color at a young age. I have even heard some females showing color from the diet.
So bottom line: it is not always easy to sex all fish. But so far, everyone above have been right on.
So bottom line: it is not always easy to sex all fish. But so far, everyone above have been right on.
If fed with colour enhancing food the females will quite often not breed as the stuff more often than not contains male hormones. The females need to be off this food for 3-4 weeks in order to breed.
A really mature Caeruleus male can develop a darkeing of the skin around his face and they do tend to have more black in their fins.
Safest way to tell though is to vent but then they need to be of a decent size so the holes are clear to see.
Caeruleus, Met callainos(blue cobalts) and one or two other species are of the same colouring but invariably the females tend to be the duller fish in the tank.
If you have a number of fish in a tank with a dominant male, remove him for a while and you will soon see who else is male as the less dominant will suddenly show colour.
A really mature Caeruleus male can develop a darkeing of the skin around his face and they do tend to have more black in their fins.
Safest way to tell though is to vent but then they need to be of a decent size so the holes are clear to see.
Caeruleus, Met callainos(blue cobalts) and one or two other species are of the same colouring but invariably the females tend to be the duller fish in the tank.
If you have a number of fish in a tank with a dominant male, remove him for a while and you will soon see who else is male as the less dominant will suddenly show colour.