Female? I'm Not Sure.

[lilhottie]

A while back I got a female from a well reputed fish store. She was little and pink, and had a bit of teal to her fins. I noticed in the store the whole batch looked like babies, but the guy assured me full grown females. So we brought Lucille home, and about 2 months later she is pink with a sometimes teal, sometimes purple tint to her body, vibrantly teal fins and bright red ventals. She is also the same size as our males. Her fins are still, however, short. I'm trying to figure out if Lucille is just a huge beautiful female, or if a little short fin guy somehow got mixed in with the batch. Is is possible that she is a female, but since we got her so young she just flurished in good conditions? Is it common for females to get this big and be so colourful?

I'll try to get a picture.

 

[lilfishie]

if you look at the link in my signature about female tail types it tells you how to tell females from male plakats

 

[lilhottie]

Thanks! Very informative. Found out my other female is a vt! I was feeling confident at first that yes, she is a female, however upon reading all the way through about the longer ventrals (they are an ok length, not LONG, but not short at all, esp. not considering how short the rest of the fins are) and about the flaring, when she flares I feel like maybe she does have the extra flap of skin...haha I feel very retarded on the subject. I haven't ever had this kind of a problem before. We were going to use her for breeding, however are slightly arrested due to the confusion about her gender. She also has built 2 or 3 quite large bubble nests in her time, if that is any indication.

Pictures! I don't know if they'll help any though. She doesn't enjoy the camera.

 

[zoekin8yg]

ooooh shes lovely pretty sure she is female, they can build nests. Alan fin isnt pointed enough for a male PK. I think shes an SD

 

[vancouver]

Try to get a pic in which the ventrals aren't covering where the ovipositor would be..

Ventrals are in the way!

 

[lilhottie]

haha don't I know it...they are always in the way. I'm always trying to check that out but her ventrals are literally always in the way...anyway, after a lot of deliberation I'm pretty sure everyone's right, and the pet store was right, she's a girl. Thanks!