Sexing my Red Tail

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Dont know if this is true but,i had been told that male RTC's have a darker red on thier tail.(Please let me know if this is wrong,i was told this by a younger sales clerk at my local LFS)
 
Dovii dude;857499; said:
Dont know if this is true but,i had been told that male RTC's have a darker red on thier tail.(Please let me know if this is wrong,i was told this by a younger sales clerk at my local LFS)
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I've heard this can be true, but I've also been told that diet plays a huge role on the color also... So a female eating on shrimp may have a redder tail then a male eating beef heart or something like that.... Also I've heard that males are smaller... I don't know if this absolute truths or not so please don't hold me to it :)
 
this is a debate that will go on forever. The only true way to be 100% sure of sex in this and many other catfish is disection. But then you are out a fish even though you know the sex. Not even biologists that have disected 100s of them that I talked to know how to sex them externally. They told me there's no difference unless the female is gravid with eggs. She will look like she ate too much even if she ate nothing. Generally the females of most fish species get larger, especially catfish, so that they can hold more eggs. This being said catfish can reproduce at a small size, and thus you could have a 3ft male that breeds with a 2ft female. Or vice versa. But if you have them the same amount of time and 10 years from now, you have one that is 4ft. and the other is only 2 1/2-3ft. you probably have a big female and a small male. I garuntee if you look at world records the vast majority are females laden with eggs. They are much heavier at a shorter length than when they are not gravid. So get about 10 grow them out for 10 years, and compare the sizes. Bound to have at least 1 male and 1 female. Of course you need to study a lot about the time of year when they breed, the water params when they breed, temp changes that could trigger them to release eggs, and sperm, then you may be able to breed them eventually. It's my eventual dream. Breeding these bad boys in captivity would keep their wild cousins wild.
 
AwolAngler;857656; said:
Are you trying to breed? Or did you just wanna know what to name him/her hahaha?
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Actually pretty much yes. But also out of interest, I had read that the male has a genital papillia (hence the picture) either way not looking to breed as I dont fancy turning one of my bed rooms into a giant tank.....mmm now that I've said that:nilly:
 
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