Clarification On Male/female And Colouring Please

[Didge007]

I have a thread down lower if you want to have a read. Basically I have no idea what I've bought, but I got them out of the female tank at the lfs (all explained in the other thread). They are all in separate tanks at the moment as I don't have enough fish to start a sorority. I think they are pretty cute anyways Suggestion on names would be great!

Little blue (first purchase, believe it's a VT female. Massacred my RCS population. Fiesty, cranky little ratbag):
Harrassing a shrimp
Flaring at little red

Little black/purple (blue specks in photo are actually purple. Believe it's a VT female as well. Docile pretty girl, tatty fins so she's in the shrimp tank until they heal. She's adorable when she's flaring):
Little black

Little red (fiesty little critter. Believe this is a male however the tail leads me to believe CT female. The ring leader of the flaring between itself and little blue. Is it a dragon? Silver is quiet irridecent):
Little cranky red

If they are female, will be purchasing (CAREFULLY!) two more ladies and popping them into a heavily planted 80L.

 

[Fishy friend2]

1st looks like a female to me
2nd also looks like a female to me
And 3rd looks like a male

 

[Devilish Angelfish]

I have a thread down lower if you want to have a read. Basically I have no idea what I've bought, but I got them out of the female tank at the lfs (all explained in the other thread). They are all in separate tanks at the moment as I don't have enough fish to start a sorority. I think they are pretty cute anyways Suggestion on names would be great!

Little blue (first purchase, believe it's a VT female. Massacred my RCS population. Fiesty, cranky little ratbag):
Harrassing a shrimp
Flaring at little red

Little black/purple (blue specks in photo are actually purple. Believe it's a VT female as well. Docile pretty girl, tatty fins so she's in the shrimp tank until they heal. She's adorable when she's flaring):
Little black

Little red (fiesty little critter. Believe this is a male however the tail leads me to believe CT female. The ring leader of the flaring between itself and little blue. Is it a dragon? Silver is quiet irridecent):
Little cranky red

If they are female, will be purchasing (CAREFULLY!) two more ladies and popping them into a heavily planted 80L.

The little blue looks like a young male to me. Its hard to tell sometimes and petshops rarely have the time (or interest) to watch their behaviour to make sure they are actually female because they buy them young and sometimes there's a late-blooming male in with the females.

 

[Devilish Angelfish]

I have a thread down lower if you want to have a read. Basically I have no idea what I've bought, but I got them out of the female tank at the lfs (all explained in the other thread). They are all in separate tanks at the moment as I don't have enough fish to start a sorority. I think they are pretty cute anyways Suggestion on names would be great!

Little blue (first purchase, believe it's a VT female. Massacred my RCS population. Fiesty, cranky little ratbag):
Harrassing a shrimp
Flaring at little red

Little black/purple (blue specks in photo are actually purple. Believe it's a VT female as well. Docile pretty girl, tatty fins so she's in the shrimp tank until they heal. She's adorable when she's flaring):
Little black

Little red (fiesty little critter. Believe this is a male however the tail leads me to believe CT female. The ring leader of the flaring between itself and little blue. Is it a dragon? Silver is quiet irridecent):
Little cranky red

If they are female, will be purchasing (CAREFULLY!) two more ladies and popping them into a heavily planted 80L.

I'd be willing to lay good odds that the little black is a female. The little red could be a well-coloured female but the intense colouring makes me think its another male thats yet to grow his lovely tail out.

 

[Better is Betta]

1st looks like a female to me
2nd also looks like a female to me
And 3rd looks like a male

Yep I agree....as for names how about Spicy, Twiggy, and Chippy.

 

[Fishy friend2]

One of them should be named trouble for sure one is flaring one is a possible male and the other killed all the shrimp their all trouble

 

[Didge007]

They are all trouble haha! They been a small headache this past week. Itd be safe to assume the black is a female then. The red I'm pretty sure is male but I've become attached so I'll just give him his own tank. The blue I might keep separate for a while until I know. The red & blue are only about 2.5cm so they are only babies

Any ideas on colouration?

 

[Didge007]

Just a thought, if the little red is a male I'm going to have to give him a cross-dresser name like Prasilla (queen of the desert anyone?). Can't help myself
Can anyone help me as to why they get stress bars? Especially little black, she/he shouldn't have them I would imagine as she/he is in a tank by it's self, no bright lights (there is a light but there is also plant coverage), clean water, low flow filter, temp 26deg celcius...? Her/His only tank mates are the surviving three cherry shrimp from little blue's massacre but they are in a breeding net.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I think they are all girls. Blue is a girl as she has an egg spot (white spot between her ventrical fins)

The other two have wrong shaped fins to be a plakat male and their ventricals are too short to be male

One was to tell for sure is to hold a mirror up in front of them to get them to flare. Females will just flare their cheeks, males will flare their cheeks and they have a big beard which the ladies dont

Edit:

I've included a photo of one of my girls (blue) and plakat male (white) you can see in the photos that the ventricals are totally different lengths and the shapes of their bottom fins are different (males seems to slope down more, females is more straight)

Female:

Bitsy by dipsydoodlenoodle, on Flickr

Male:

Benji by dipsydoodlenoodle, on Flickr

What can also be confusing is longer finned females (see next photo), however you can see she only has short ventricals and an egg spot.

Ivy by dipsydoodlenoodle, on Flickr

Also in this next photo it's a my male flaring, you can tell as his beard is huge and he has a bit that goes below his chin, females don't have this


Benji by dipsydoodlenoodle, on Flickr

 

[The_Betta_Lady]

They all look like girls to me. Red is much more coloured up but the ventral fins look too short and plump. Just keep an eye on little red, but I think you are ok. I would say little blue was a delta, the edges of the tail are too straight for a VT.

Edited to say: the bars showing on the black girl and faintly on the red are not stress bars, stress bars go the other way, from head to tail. The bars you can see here are are saying that she is ready to mate.

 

[fuzzynicki]

I'm def no expert,- but I would have bought them all as 3 females! the 3rd one isn't a CT. They are all very lovely. I hope that they settle once you've got a few more girls in with them and they can work out their pecking order

 

[lilfishie]

They all look like girls to me. Red is much more coloured up but the ventral fins look too short and plump. Just keep an eye on little red, but I think you are ok. I would say little blue was a delta, the edges of the tail are too straight for a VT.

Edited to say: the bars showing on the black girl and faintly on the red are not stress bars, stress bars go the other way, from head to tail. The bars you can see here are are saying that she is ready to mate.

I agree i also agree that the blue is not a VT she has too many rays for a VT ther looks 4+ to me from that pic, take a look at the link in my signature

 

[Didge007]

Thanks guys, glad to hear I have three girls (will be watching little red like a hawk though). Also good to know we have some very colored females in Australia! Good to see the gene pool is getting better here. The stress bars aren't shown in the photos, they are indeed two thick black lines going from nose to tail

 

[lilfishie]

i wouldn't worry too much about the stripes, my 2 Blacks have them too none of the others do though, must just be Blacks

 

[Didge007]

Speaking of stripes...I thought maybe it was the light and took a quick peak while the light was off. Obviously, stripes were still there so I turned the light on. Came back 30mins later and stood in front of the tank for a few minutes (in the kitchen talking to family) and took another quick peak and she was all coloured up looking pretty Then the stripes came back