More pics of my festae

[jslayz]

99% Female.
I've never seen a male go like that, ever in Perth anyways.
When my male had his stripes on he definitely didnt have the vibrant orange tones at all.

J

 

[dent20]

At what size should the sex of a festae become clear? It would seem four to five inches is still too small.

 

[jslayz]

At what size should the sex of a festae become clear? It would seem four to five inches is still too small.

Hi dent20

In my experience most are easily distinguishable once they are 4 to 6 inches, somewhere in there anyways. At that size you will suddenly see either the black dorsal become darker on the female or the fish seems a lighter, more even colour, usually with a lot of blue speckles forming, which indicate male.
When they are smaller the males and females usually look the same. My 10 1inch to 2inch ones are indistinguishable, ive an inkling of 1 of them being male, starting to get metallic face and ultra hostile but guess I'll see in the coming months.
Hope this helps.

J

PS here's a pic of my female:

 

[nolapete]

Depends on the quality of the male. The pair in my avatar pic are evidence of that. He displayed his bars all the time whereas the one in my profile pic never displayed barring. The avatar male is wild and the profile pic was highly domesticated.

 

[Freshwaterpredators]

I'm gonna go with fishluvr and say. Male. I used to go with stripes and dark dorsal for female and spangles for male. But the more festae I've raised the more I learn. I have a wild pair right now and when my male stripes up, if you didn't know better you would say female. I will post some pics here soon. And my female has a lot of spangles but is also colored up so its obvious.
But back to subject, I say male. And good looking one at that as well.

 

[jslayz]

If it's male, even with stripes it should be metallic like below:



Until my female was on her own for over 3 months she wasn't metallic at all on her body.

The OP's doesn't look metallic at all.

Perhaps he can post another pic taken with a flash with the lights in the room turned off?

That would certainly help.

J

 

[dent20]

My festae is a little over four inches. Early on, I was leaning toward male as it had a lot of spangles. Lately, its spangles have faded somewhat, its dorsal has darkened more and its stripes have really come to life, so I've been thinking female. BUT mine is wild born, so now you guys have me doubting that assumption. I'm in no rush to know as I'm not planning on finding it a partner anytime soon, but I am curious.