Color On Month Old Fry?

[kuri33]

I have a munch of guppy fry and they are a month old tomorrow. Some have gravid spots and some might.. Some are starting to get color on their tail fin, and I think i heard somewhere that males get their color first and the females may never get color? One mom only has faint black speckles on her fin, another has a very bold (for a female) fin, and the other had an almost all yellow fin. I don't know who any of the fathers are. What I am wondering about is about the fry with color on the back fin. Is it true that males get the color first? If so, does that mean that all the fry with color on their fin are male?

Some have what appears to be a black line on the back tail part of the body, does that also mean that they are males, since it is on their body?

 

[zain611]

You just have to wait till they develop there gender organs/parts like males will have like a stick fin on the bottom and females have a fan shaped fin. I currentlty raising 5 fry for about a month or 5 weeks now and some have black and a yellow tint on their tail which i think they are male because i have a yellow snakeskin guppy and a female which has a yellow plain tail so the snakeskin has black marks on it but just have to wait and see

 

[kuri33]

I'm trying to separate them as soon as i can and by the time they start getting the stick fin the females could already be pregnant.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

The appearance of color has not been accurate with my fry. The faster developing ones tend to be getting their color first in my tanks... and its often faster growing females, followed by potential males followed by the slower ones.

In fact.... I have nearly 4 month old fry of which all but 1 showed their gender around 2 months and one of them just revealed his maleness this week!! A very very late bloomer.

Anyhow... I find you can tell most of the females in the first 1 1/2 months and all the rest I group together until I know what they are. A good rule... its better to accidently have a female in the male tank than a male in the female tank.

 

[kuri33]

The appearance of color has not been accurate with my fry. The faster developing ones tend to be getting their color first in my tanks... and its often faster growing females, followed by potential males followed by the slower ones.

In fact.... I have nearly 4 month old fry of which all but 1 showed their gender around 2 months and one of them just revealed his maleness this week!! A very very late bloomer.

Anyhow... I find you can tell most of the females in the first 1 1/2 months and all the rest I group together until I know what they are. A good rule... its better to accidently have a female in the male tank than a male in the female tank.

Thank You! That is VERY good to know!

I will continue to work on determining their gender. It's really cool to see them getting their color

 

[zain611]

Yeah, one of the 5 fry i have is the smallest one and its colour hasnt developed

 

[OldMan47]

Kuri, just monitor your fry. Once they start to mature, the time will vary quite a bit, you will begin so see things like darker spots on the earliest developing males. Until the fish show their primary sex characteristics, like the gonopodium in a male, you cannot be sure what you have, but often the males will develop colors earlier than the females.