How To Tell Male From Female?

[Durbkat]

I would like to have guppies and platys in my long 20g so once the females have babies I can give the fry to my angelfish so I would like pictures of males and females of these two fish so when I go to the pets store I can get one male per 3 females. I would also like all the info I can get on these fish and what will need to put the females in when the give birth so I can get the fry out without being eaten so I can give it to my angels.

 

[bunjiweb]

You don't really need pictures to tell. It is usually plainly obvious. The males are always quite a bit smaller and much more colourful than the female and depending on the breed usually a longer tail fin. If you are not sure on this alone then look at the underside of the fish. It will have 2 pectoral fins towards the front, then behind that a spike if it is a male, or a triangular fin if it is a female.

1- Female, 2 - Male

Ben

 

[Durbkat]

Is the platy the same way? All right so the male has the awesome colors but the female has little to no tail color like the male?

 

[Annastasia]

Just look at the anal fin, it's the surest way to tell. Colors can vary.

Try reading the pinned topics, and the topics in the FAQ for info. After that, if you have any questions, come back and I'm sure someone will answer them.

 

[bunjiweb]

The way of identifiying by their anal fin is true for all livebearers, i.e. mollys, platys, sword-tails, guppys etc.

Ben

 

[Durbkat]

How many of each fish can I put in a long 20g?

 

[Annastasia]

Just them, or other fish too?

If it's just them, I'd say maybe 2 trios of each. Or just a trio of each, so you can raise a couple fry and keep them. You're going to get attached to at least 1, I guarantee it.

 

[Durbkat]

Would this be an ok stocking list then, 1 male guppy and 3 female guppies, 1 male platy and 3 female platys? From what I read on the pinned topics my angels are going to be full all the time. I may keep a few. How many can I keep in the tank once they spawned and I do survival of the fittest?

 

[Annastasia]

Yes. As I said before, you'd probably have enough room for another trio each.

If you're doing survival of the fittest, plant well. Nmonks has talked about it in his pinned topic though. And so have I.

 

[Durbkat]

Thanks for answering all my newby questions.

 

[Annastasia]

No problem, we all start sometime!

As I said, read the pinned/FAQ topics then if you have any questions, definitely feel free to ask.

 

[bennett]

Thanks for answering all my newby questions.

3574 posts is a newby?!

 

[blitztidus]

Thats a little fuzzy to me too?

 

[Durbkat]

Thanks for answering all my newby questions.

3574 posts is a newby?!

No newby QUESTIONS.

Thats a little fuzzy to me too?

What, I was just asking about livebearers since I've never kept them before.

 

[blitztidus]

QUOTE(blitztidus @ Jan 31 2006, 06:31 PM)

Thats a little fuzzy to me too?


What, I was just asking about livebearers since I've never kept them before.

If I did my math right that is an average of about 23 a day, HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED TO KNOW? JK LOL