SAVAGEDEVIL;647157; said:Well if someone can bring a comparison or example thats related to RD'S and not other species of fish then maybe so but until then this subject will obviously be simply over your head so please refrain from bringing your ignorance into this subject.
you need to please refrain from statements such as the one I put in bold.
honestly, you have both made good points and I agree with some of what each of you said. IMO, trying to sex any of the most commonly available species such as red devils, green terrors, jack dempseys, firemouths, convicts etc based on finnage is no better than a guess due to all the inbreeding and in some cases cross breeding. the physical difference between sexes of a domesticated pair won't be as distinguishable as compared to a wild caught pair. I've had 2" female convicts with very long dorsal and anal fin trailers.
Savagedevil, you are absolutely right about flowerhorns and how they've been bred for certain traits so sexing these fish by finnage is not going to be possible. However I'd have guessed female for both your FH and Sinisterkisses FH before either of you said they were female because they both have one thing in common which is the black dorsal blotch. This usually indicates female in the ZZ flowerhorns. The reason I say ZZ flowerhorns and not Kamfas or Jin Kangs is because ZZ have the most trimac in them and female trimacs have a black dorsal blotch. the more of other species that are mixed into flowerhorns the less likely the black dorsal blotch rule will apply, and even in ZZ's it's not always the case but it's the only way I know of to try to sex a ZZ by external features.
SinisterKisses;645277; said:Lol oh that's such bull.
I've had plenty of pure, CA females develop amazing finnage. The trick is to allow them to be in a position where they're not constantly being picked at and having their fins nipped. My point here is finnage is typically a BS, unreliable way of sexing most fish on appearance. I'm still maintaining that the RD in question is this thread could be a male, or a female, and until I see a proper vent shot, I'm not saying which. I've seen plenty of female RD's look the same way and plenty have had just about exactly the same body shape (including the nuchal hump) as the pic of the FH you posted.
And one more thing...please refrain from calling my little Bongo girl there, low-quality again. She's a long way from actually, but that's not the point. Fish snobs drive me nuts. Thanks
I agree with your first paragraph and honestly I don't even think the pics that were originally posted show evidence of dorsal or anal fin extensions that some people refer to as being a male characteristic. my first "lfs red devil" (sold as a midas) actually looked almost identical to the fish originally posted and I'm about 95% sure it was female. bottom line is that it's my opinion that trying to sex by finnage is nothing more than an educated guess. the only way to know for sure is venting.
sinister, no need to get so defensive though. I don't think SavageDevil was trying to insult your flowerhorn. She's a nice looking FH but I think that most FH experts would agree she's low to mid quality as far as FH standards go. She has very nice finnage but not much color compared to some of the high $$$ FH's and she has no pearling. Again, I'm not insulting her at all, she is a very nice looking fish that you have obviously taken excellent care of. Low quality in terms of FH's to me means a FH that looks like a somewhat more colorful trimac (as far as ZZ's go anyway).
