The fins will be the first indication, you will start to see slight colouration appearing there first.
Regards
BigC

Colin, the fins are still white, but the body starts to show a bit of orangish/reddish spots in the belly area. They are currently around 1.5 to 2 cms.

Hi Biulu
At that size Fp. gardneri Jos Plateau and Aphyo. australe males will both have faint lines/bands in their unpaired fins showing first look closely. Sounds like you may have females though. How many of each species have you in total.
Regards
BigC

The australe are 1 month younger and much smaller, so nothing to see there yet. I have 5 gardneris and around 15 australes. I lost a couple as I was on a business trip and had to leave them with somebody to care for. You know, that is never the same, but I think they did a good job for non-fish keepers.

It is a ibt hard to check, as the water is fairly brown. I am using water which has tannins in it leached by a large piece of bogwood. This saved me as water is very hard here. All aquarists say it is a miracle I have come that far......

In the meantime the panchax is a nice little gentleman who holds already his own in my community tank. I think he is definitively more beautiful than his parents with a nice reddish/orangish lining on his tail.

Catch or usher the fry into a jamjar for further inspection.
Regards
BigC

Colin, it looks like they are all females, according to your description; the fins are all transparent. It would be a pity, but it is not too bad, because it is a great learning experience!

Sam will send you some more eggs I'm sure. Listen... let me have your water stats as regards to pH, hardness and temperature. Just an idea for next time.
Keep the females...Send for some more eggs.
Regards
BigC

I will be in Europe again in September, so will get some more eggs then. I think it has to do with the high temperature at that time. I will check the pH and hardness of the water I am currently using for them. The temperature is 24 degrees (without heater).

There is a big ongoing debate surrounding those factors, predominately the pH, Check yours and go a little to the opposite side of where yours is presently when hatching the next batch.
The sticking point of the debate is weither the pH affects (with regard to sex) the egg when its laid or when it hatches.
Regards
BigC

Ok, I guess I would be able to do that temporarily while hatching, but how and when do I then adapt them to the 'normal' pH? I already will have to do that for the hardness...

the water I am currently using (with tannins from a big piece of bogwood) has a pH of 6, while the water from the bottles I buy have a pH of 8. I should be keeping discus! I do not know the pH at the time of the hatching, as I soaked peat in the water for 3 days to lower the hardness.

As you suggested me Colin, I separated today the australe fry lagging behind in growth in a separate container. This gave me the opportunity to count my babies, and they are still 15, so better then I thought before.

If it is right that the more 'golden' coloured ones are going to be males, I will both sexes in this batch. There is certainly a difference in fry. Some are simply grey, and others have this orangish glow, but it is too soon to tell, so I need to have patience.

The f. gardneri is growing fast now, and I hope they will look like real miniature killies soon.

Yeah hopefully you will have some male australe in amongst that lot. (I still sex mine with the fins though) anyway you'd have to be extremely unlucky not to get atleast one male from fifteen.
Gardneri do mature much faster than Australe so you shold have no problem with them.
Just remind me was it Chocolate Australe or Gold Australe you got.

Keep tight fitting lids on your tanks and keep australe females and gardneri females well apart. As they will cross but the resulting fry may or may not be sterile.
Please refrain from doing anything like this and keep the strain pure.

Regards
BigC

Colin, I have australe gold fry. I was immediately attracted to this lovely fish, more than the chocolate strain. I keep gardneri and australe in separate tanks, so no problems with cross-breeding. For the moment I would be too worried the australe might be eaten by the gardneris! I just put the small australe in a separate tupper to give them more chances to get food without the competition from their larger brothers and sisters.

I had a microworm culture that went bad during my absence, but I noticed that larvae from fruit flies are developing in it, and I have started feeding these to the gardneris. They love it! Larvae should be protein rich so should keep their development at the right pace.

Fruitfly are excellent both larval stage and adult, I use the wingless or vistigal winged variety. They can make a bit more work for you but they are excellent.
I make my media from a concoction of ingredients. I use 1 pint plastic beer beakers for the nursery. Into this I mix 1 spoon of molassas sugar, a good slice of banana some concentrated fruit juice and I mix it all up into a paste. not too thick as the maggots will have trouble getting about, Then I place in 2 lolipop sticks and a small piece of kitchen roll. I place about 12 adult flies in each container and cover with a cutting of ladies tights and an elastic band. To feed when culture matures I place the beaker in the fridge (my fish food fridge not the domestic food one) to reduce the temperature, this subdues the flies and you can easily and steadily shake a portion (12 or more depending on what you want to feed) into a net and submerge and allow them to float. The killis go mad.
Regards
BigC

I do have gardneri males: 2 definitively! It is just like with humans: males just take a bit longer in their development!

I know these pictures leave a lot to desire in terms of quality, but you get the idea:

IMG]http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w244/Biulu/DSC01628.jpg[/IMG]

Definately a male, did you not spot the yellow banding on the dorsal and anal fins way before now.
Well there you go, nice plump abdomen well fed specimen
Regards
BigC

Thanks! No, I didn't notice it last week. The fish are now around 3 months old and 2 - 2.5 cm. It is a pity that the first picture doesn't want to appear. I will try again:

Yeah super,
The first signs are the yellowing and the emergence of the red stripe directly below the yellow band in the dorsal, anal and upper and lower ray of the caudal to a certain extent.
I bet you are glad to see those males appear. Next generation will be your next task. Please be aware of a tight fitting lid, block even the holes where your wiring and airlines enter the tank (with filter wool or similar). I once sent for a trio of Fp. gar. Jos Plateau from Sweden, I inadvertantly left the coverglass open one day and a female leaped to her death as I was at work. Just as well it wasn't the male. So that is why I'm stressing the importance of such practice.
Anyway keep posting the updates especially with the pics.
Regards
BigC