How Do You Sex A Red Tailed Shark, Angel, And Bristle Nosed Catfish

[randalthor]

 

[The-Wolf]

RTBS unknown; however males may have a more pointed dorsal fin in comparrison to a female. even experts can get this wrong this way so it is not a gaurentee.

Angels virtually impossible.

bristlenose cats males have very pronounced bristles, females have none

 

[Mad Duff]

RTBS the posterior part of the dorsal fin is said to be more pointed in a male and rounded in females.

I have used a couple of methods:
a, Veiwed straight on the males has a narrow and deep appearance.
Whereas the female has a bulging profile.

b, Veiwed from the side, a line drawn from the males snout going down to the beginning og the anal fin is almost straight. Whereas the same line on the female will show a slight step just behind the beginning of the ventrals, and the line, instead of running down to the anal fin, will appear to travel straight across.
(this is by no means definitive but has worked for me in the past).

Bristlenose cats as The Wolf said pronounced bristles on the males.

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

i also think female bristenoses are wider in the head than males.
the males usually start to develop their bristles when they reach about 2 inches in length.

 

[randalthor]

Is what you do for the RTBS the same for a rainbow shark?

 

[Katchan]

RTBS & Rainbow Sharks there are 2 methods both open to speculation

1-as already said the pointed/rounded method
2-females tend to be rounder of body

please not both methods one and two are far from foolproof


Angels, there is ONLY ONE WAY to sex an angel correctly, any other method is open to mistake and debate
-when mating, and occasionally other times angels show their "gear" about midway between the anal fin (long one and bottom) their ventral fins. In males it looks like the tip of a ball point pen, in females like a small tube.

Andrew