Sexing Angels

fishes1995

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hi all
ive got two marbeled angels in my tank and was wondering if i had a pair :good:
how do you sex angels? :unsure:
cheers :good:
 
i may be wrong but i think its pretty near impossible until the females breeding tube is down.
 
i disagree

sorry but i thought that females had a bump on the top of thier head and males had a flat or curved head
ps it may be the othe way around
 
If you dont know what your looking for it's almost impossible.

You can sex them but again it's not 100% untill you see the females spawning.
Males do have a curved head but only slightly more than the female and only when mature, so fish under 3-4" you have no chance.
 
You can't be 100% certain until you have a viable spawn. Two females have been known to pair & spawn. You can be pretty close to 100% when the do spawn though, females pairing & spawning is pretty rare.

Anything smaller than quarter body size is straight guessing. Any fewer than about 8 fish grown out from the same spawn is guessing as well. Generally, as angels from the same spawn approach half dollar body size, the males will be a bit larger, as well as more aggressive. They will be the first, usually, to claim territory.

The females will be a bit smaller, due to the body producing eggs. They will usually tend to stay in a small, loosely defined group, and be less aggressive. Females may be a bit wider on the bottom, while males may be a bit more narrow.

I've seen plenty of large aggressive females, as well as smaller chunky males. The bump on the head can grow on either sex, but is more common in large mature males, 2+ years old.

Much of it is observing group interaction within a well settled in environment. This is the opposite of a typical shop tank, more of the thing you will see in a larger home tank after growing out smaller fish. With these observations, you can sex at about 80% accuracy. Guessing is 50% accuracy, not a huge advantage, but not one to discount.
 
if what matchstickman47 says is true then i think i have a pair
 
I've been keeping them for 15 years on and off, and i would not say 100% on how to sex, only an educated guess at the best.
 
if what matchstickman47 says is true then i think i have a pair

You may, or may not. I've got 6 pairs spawning atm, a seventh possible since this week. I've personally worked with more than a few pairs over the years.
 
my angels are breeding at this very moment and there was no visual difference between them untill about 3 hours before they spawned.
excuse my lack of correct names but the females breeding tube is twice the thickness of the males and apart from the female having a swollen belly there was no other difference between the two.
im not an expert on angels this is my first pair im just saying what im seeing. :good:
 

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