Male or Female Help

[gwand]

This is an offspring of Mohawk Man, an a. cacatuoides orange morph. Do you think the fish is male or female. Plus the fishes belly looks swollen in one pic. Opinions?

Here is a sibling that I am more certain is a male.

 

[Colin_T]

Males have a squared off tail with filaments on the ends. Females have a rounded tail with no filaments.

Males are normally more colourful, especially the fins. If it's female it will be a nicely coloured one.

The yellow fin male is nice and you should breed that with another yellow fin (preferably unrelated if you can find one). I haven't seen A. cacatuoides with yellow fins like that one.

 

[emeraldking]

Looks like a male when I already look at the those tips of both anal and dorsal fin. I think the first one is a young male. The second one is definitely a male.

 

[GaryE]

Look at the pectorals. That a highly genetically modified fish, and the colours are a mess in them, but in wild types, a female has black pectorals (for signalling fry). Fish one is likely female, fish 2 100% male.

 

[Colin_T]

Look at the pectorals. That a highly genetically modified fish, and the colours are a mess in them, but in wild types, a female has black pectorals (for signalling fry). Fish one is likely female, fish 2 100% male.

pectoral fins or pelvic fins?

 

[anewbie]

There are generalities among the pelvic fin colour even among wc populations there are exceptions in both direciton.

 

[GaryE]

Brain jam - pelvic.

 

[gwand]

Look at the pectorals. That a highly genetically modified fish, and the colours are a mess in them, but in wild types, a female has black pectorals (for signalling fry). Fish one is likely female, fish 2 100% male.

Yes. The pelvic fins are black.

 

[gwand]

This fish which is probably female is a terrible bully. That was one reason I thought it was male. She is now in her own tank.

In my South American tank I have a trio of a. cacatuoides and 10 Glowlight tetras. I have not seen either female cacatuoides in two weeks. The 20 gallon long tank is heavily planted. The pH 6.0, GH 115 ppm, 0 nitrate and ammonia, nitrate 5 ppm. The male cacatuoides is surprisingly gentle. Where are my females? Dead or hiding? I was hoping to breed this team.

 

[GaryE]

When tons of different cacatuoides wilds were coming here in the late nineties (sometimes 10 importations a year, all different) the pelvic thing worked as an indicator once they were a certain size. But I've been looking at the double/triple red linebreds, as well as the 'orange flash' ones, and all bets seem off. Those fish are far from nature, and the females carry a lot of colour.

I took all that diversity for granted, and I wish I hadn't. I thought the arrival of nice Apistos even at the ordinary pet shop level was going to keep on growing, but the fish fell out of fashion quickly. It figures that the best period I ever saw for wild imports happened to be just before digital photography.

I still see high end rare wild Apistogramma at importers', though not in the numbers and diversity they used to appear in. 2 tanks with Apistos seems standard now. Around 2000, I'd see many different species every visit (I sometimes unpacked twice a week), and cacatuoides were regular stock. Sadly, now, the fancy forms have conquered the market completely, outside of a few fish afficionados like @anewbie .

 

[gwand]

When tons of different cacatuoides wilds were coming here in the late nineties (sometimes 10 importations a year, all different) the pelvic thing worked as an indicator once they were a certain size. But I've been looking at the double/triple red linebreds, as well as the 'orange flash' ones, and all bets seem off. Those fish are far from nature, and the females carry a lot of colour.

I took all that diversity for granted, and I wish I hadn't. I thought the arrival of nice Apistos even at the ordinary pet shop level was going to keep on growing, but the fish fell out of fashion quickly. It figures that the best period I ever saw for wild imports happened to be just before digital photography.

I still see high end rare wild Apistogramma at importers', though not in the numbers and diversity they used to appear in. 2 tanks with Apistos seems standard now. Around 2000, I'd see many different species every visit (I sometimes unpacked twice a week), and cacatuoides were regular stock. Sadly, now, the fancy forms have conquered the market completely, outside of a few fish afficionados like @anewbie .

So are you saying the black pelvic fin in the orange morph is not a guaranteed indicator of female status?? She/he/they is very hostile to conspecifics.

 

[GaryE]

This is what @anewbie suggested. I don't have enough experience of linebreds to know for myself. I haven't seen any wilds where it wasn't an indicator, but I lost interest in Apistos by about 2005. I expect @anewbie has seen importations I didn't see.

I just look at them in stores, and locally, most come from one breeder anyway - that guy has found himself a niche.

It's the pelvic fin. I brainjammed there.

 

[anewbie]

This is what @anewbie suggested. I don't have enough experience of linebreds to know for myself. I haven't seen any wilds where it wasn't an indicator, but I lost interest in Apistos by about 2005. I expect @anewbie has seen importations I didn't see.

I just look at them in stores, and locally, most come from one breeder anyway - that guy has found himself a niche.

It's the pelvic fin. I brainjammed there.

The issue i run into are sub dominant males who pretend to be females to you know avoid the wrath of the male.