Need help sexing Red Festae

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chrisdsm22

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 11, 2010
9
0
0
Utah
Hey, I could use someone expertise on sexing three Red Festae. They are about thirteen months old. I bought them all at the same time at two inches and one grew much faster than the others. The largest is about eight inches and the others are about six and a half inches. The largest one gets the most coloring and the black bars stand out more on occasion. He goes from green to a light orange sometimes. I know the dorsal fin is supposed to be mostly black on females. Half of his is black but, it's hard to see in the pictures. I took some pictures that aren't the greatest but, if you need more let me know. Let me know what you think. Thanks.



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Due to the spangling...they all the look male to me IMO
 
I was thinking the same thing but, I wasn't sure about the largest one with half his dorsal fin being black. Thanks.
 
Some males have the black on the dorsal fins. You can tell more by the spangling and other markings/coloration.
 
The females display those colors more when they are ready to spawn.
 
LOL.. its fun trying to sex festae. Its hard to tel by those pics. Both male and females can have tons of spangles or hardly any. And males will have dark dorsals too. But the fish in your pics look all female to me. Males will have a lot of spangles in fins especially their anal fin where females don't. That's wat I'm goin wit to sex yours. None are showing definate color and the dorsals are dark.
What else do you have in tank with them. Could try a dominate male from different species to help get them to show their colors.
 
These are some of the toughest to sex Ive seen in a long time. I'd have to say all male.The one could possibly be female but I believe they are all male
 
I have a pretty dominate male Peacock cichlid in there that chases them occasionally. Moving him to his own 55g soon. The bigger Festae chases one of the smaller ones and his bars go darker and he gets a little orange. If he is truly a he that is?!?!
 
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