I have read through the article on sexing festae, but there were no pics and just tons of tripod signs which made it rediculously hard to read and I still have no idea what I am looking for. I mean, I can tell a male from a female at 6", but mine are 3-4" and just starting to show their true colors. What am I looking for? Are their any tricks to IDing these guys when they are small? Thanks in advance, I would post pics, but its so hard to get a decent one with my crappy camera that I stopped trying a while back.
Sexing festae
- Thread starter uncwnells
- Start date
Top pic 3" Male - Bottom 3" female.
At 3-4" Sexing is a lil' easier than 1-2"...............Look to the lower jaw in most cases the male's jaw will show a turqoise blue coloring also the male won't show his strpes quite so much but a black dot just under the dorsal. The females will usually start showing red around the lips and their bars will become more constant but a faint bluish color. The females will also develop a line at the front of the dorsal, starts out grey then turns more bluish before turning all black.As both sexes develop males will get kinda yellowish with blue spangling that covers the entire body and females get kinda soft orange with blue spangling only on the lower and tail fins. Sometimes at even a smaller size like 2" the dom male will show his black spot and blue spangling on a whitish grey body. It's been my experience that as the pecking order establishes in a brood the dom. male will get noticable larger faster and @ 5" lites up 1st becoming maroon, then the f's as the pecking order goes down the line. With multiple males the dom. will be maroon and the subs will stay yellow. With the Females the black barring of the dom's will be in your face and the subs will remain bluish and faint.I've also observed that the females faces almost look like they are smiling as their jaws develop and the males are more droopy like they are frowninig. As they grow the males lower jaw becomes much larger than the females.
At 3-4" Sexing is a lil' easier than 1-2"...............Look to the lower jaw in most cases the male's jaw will show a turqoise blue coloring also the male won't show his strpes quite so much but a black dot just under the dorsal. The females will usually start showing red around the lips and their bars will become more constant but a faint bluish color. The females will also develop a line at the front of the dorsal, starts out grey then turns more bluish before turning all black.As both sexes develop males will get kinda yellowish with blue spangling that covers the entire body and females get kinda soft orange with blue spangling only on the lower and tail fins. Sometimes at even a smaller size like 2" the dom male will show his black spot and blue spangling on a whitish grey body. It's been my experience that as the pecking order establishes in a brood the dom. male will get noticable larger faster and @ 5" lites up 1st becoming maroon, then the f's as the pecking order goes down the line. With multiple males the dom. will be maroon and the subs will stay yellow. With the Females the black barring of the dom's will be in your face and the subs will remain bluish and faint.I've also observed that the females faces almost look like they are smiling as their jaws develop and the males are more droopy like they are frowninig. As they grow the males lower jaw becomes much larger than the females.
male: no dark blotch on front half of dorsal, lots of cyan speckles all over body and finage.
female: black/blue blotch on front half of body, only a few (if any) speckles on body.
female: black/blue blotch on front half of body, only a few (if any) speckles on body.
thanks guys and gals, I have been observing mine with this in mind over the past few days and I think I have 3 females and 3 males, but I could be wrong.