Congos

[Biulu]

I bought 6 congo tetras when young and they all turned out to be females, so now I added another 4 young ones, hoping that I would get some males.

One of the fish is now showing the typical 'triangle' at the tail fin, but has no colours whatsoever! He is about 4 cms from head to toe at the moment. Am I having a 'white' variety or will colours start showing later?

I am attaching a video of the incumbent... (Couldn't take a decent pic as he was too fast!)

 

[Squidward]

Yes, it does look like a male.

The front of your tank could do with a clean though

 

[Biulu]

Yes, it does look like a male.

The front of your tank could do with a clean though

Thank you! But shouldn't I be able to see some colour by now?! That is my worry. That he is a male, but maybe a white variety of some sort....

I know... I did it last night. I have an acrylic tank and am a bit wary I will scratch it....

 

[Carlovel1]

Just looked at your vid, then looked at my Congo Tetras. Your Congo Tetra is definatly a male, could tell by the dorsal fins, the females have a staight triangular fins whereas as males have long flowing (curtain-like) white fins. He will gain colour v. quickly, mine looked like yours, 6 months later, he is the most colourful Congo Tetra I've ever seen. You'll see!

 

[Biulu]

Thanks Carl! I looked very closely today, and maybe it is just wishing well, but I thought I saw a green hue in the lower part of the body...

 

[Biulu]

There is another fish developing the triangle with a longer dorsal fin, so it looks like I have at least 2 males . Another one is definitively a female, and the last one is not yet defined (the smallest of the group). It would be nice to get a 3rd male. The ratio would then be around 1: 3...

 

[Squidward]

And also, the male has a deeper notch in its tail, with filaments at the end of the notch.
It won't take long before he colours up.

I used to have fine gravel in my tank, and found that got caught under the algae magnet. So I switched to larger gravel for this reason. No more scratches.