male and female pks are not too hard to distingish. a male pk and a female VT however can be very easily confused, particularl if the female VT is very young.
the fins are realy the best way to tell the pk sexes apart. the males anal fin is much longer at the baxk and wil have a very fine, sharp and often quite long, point to it. his tail will be slightly longer and have a wider spread on it, although you may only notice this when flaring. his colours are genraly more intense. his body will be altogether more muscular looking than that of a female.
NEVER make a finale judgement by the presence of an "egg spot"..NEVER! its a load of BULL that this mean 100% its female. young males, especialy young pks for some reason will often show a "flase ovipositor" which is just an extention of their anus. i think the reason for this is, as alot of young pk males are being sold as female, its not uncommon to see several in one tank, and the lower ranking males show an egg spot and stress bars to show submisiveness and also to diguise them selves as a female to avoid conflict with with the dominant male/s.
telling a young vt female from a young pk male can prove trickier, especialy if she flares alot. but agin her colours will be less intence, when she flare she wont have the big beard of a pk male, in good condition she will be fat and eggy. her anal fin will be very similar to a pks but a little longer and will usualy lack the defined point on a pk. her tail will be rounder and the outer rays on her tail will curve into each other, whereas on a pk they are straight.
hers a few pics, first is a pk male, then a pk female and then a flaring pic of a vt female for comparison
hope this helps
apart from Bertha that is!!! Judging by her anal fin I would probably say male. She could be going for them at night when you don't see her. I know that having Storm in our tank made the other girls more tetchy with each other and now that she's out it's alot calmer.
