Sexing RedHead Tapajos without venting?

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MissMaddylyn

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 28, 2012
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Green Bay, Wisconsin
Can it be done? A friend of mine looked at this video and told me that the reason I wasnt seeing any spawning or pairing up is because they are all female. Can anyone support that or argue that? I know venting is the only sure way but trying to chase them around with a net really stresses them out, and the last time I caught one, it decided to flop down my shirt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToFWAvpcDL0
 
How big are they in the video? They don't look sexually mature yet.

I have never found a 100% reliable way to sex most geos until there is actual spawning. Sometimes you'll have males develop a larger/taller forehead, more color, and fin trailers, but then occasionally you find dominant females who share these same characteristics. Also, submissive males sometimes don't show the same traits as dominant males, so they can be mistaken.

My male redhead geos developed their orange coloration sooner than females and grew fin trailers but that didn't happen until 4"+.
 
They are between 3-4" right now, the biggest being a little over 4". My friend said that by this time, they should be showing more color by now if there were males in the group. Ive been watching for color and trailers, and so far, nothing too obvious. The orange looks anywhere from rusty brown to pale red-orange. Cant see it well in the video though.
 
How old are they? I'd give it a bit longer. It's kind of weird -- they don't even look like orange heads in the video. It could just be the lighting.
 
Not sure on age, I got them late july. I'm guessing 8ish months. Yeah the video made them look a lil washed out. I'll have to try to get another one.

@AClockworkOrange I'm feeding NLS
 
This is one of my breeding pairs. The male is on the left. Before they started breeding I couldn't tell who was who. The male dominant male in the tank does seem to develop a slight nauchel hump. I've also noticed males and have longer fin extensions and the males might have little more color on the head too. One of my other females has some nice fin extension to so that's not really acurate in sexing and I thought she was a male until her tube droped and she layed eggs. The bottom line is now I know but before I really didn't.


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Aquanero said:
This is one of my breeding pairs. The male is on the left. Before they started breeding I couldn't tell who was who. The male dominant male in the tank does seem to develop a slight nauchel hump. I've also noticed males and have longer fin extensions and the males might have little more color on the head too. One of my other females has some nice fin extension to so that's not really acurate in sexing and I thought she was a male until her tube droped and she layed eggs. The bottom line is now I know but before I really didn't.


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Did you buy yours as a pair or grow them out? Mine are all showing some orange-tones but havent seen any pairing up behavior. I always see a little chasing here and there but nothing I can really go off of. They all seem to have their own little territories, so at first I thought they were all male. Im really hoping to have some kind of chance to get a pair.
 
I got a group of six 1-1.5" fish and grew them out. I got very lucky three males and three females they paired up on their own. I have a pair on the left, middle and right side of the tank. The pair in the picture is the mid tank pair. That male seems to be top dog out of the group. The fish range from about 4.5" the smallest female to about 5.5" largest male. They didn't really start coloring up until they were about 3" and started breeding at about 4". The sizes I'm stating are approxamate. My fish are about 1.5 years old.

PS. I also feed NLS.
 
Aquanero said:
I got a group of six 1-1.5" fish and grew them out. I got very lucky three males and three females they paired up on their own. I have a pair on the left, middle and right side of the tank. The pair in the picture is the mid tank pair. That male seems to be top dog out of the group. The fish range from about 4.5" the smallest female to about 5.5" largest male. They didn't really start coloring up until they were about 3" and started breeding at about 4". The sizes I'm stating are approxamate. My fish are about 1.5 years old.

PS. I also feed NLS.
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Good deal, thanks for the info. I was able to get some quiet time with the fish today and did notice that two of them are definitely starting to show the fin extensions, if only a little bit. And they are the two biggest in the tank, so Im crossing my fingers on that one. AND I was able to get a fairly good shot of them as well that wasn't quite so washed out.
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