pink_fish Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 I just bought a 'female' fighter at my LFS who has turned out to be a very agro plakat male! I guess I should have taken a closer look at the pet shop, but I assumed she was just a very bright female! So I gets 'her' home, put her in a tank with my other females and assorted tetras and killies, and whammo – 'she' starts terrorising anything else that moves. I take a closer look and can't see an egg spot. So then I do the mirror test, and lo, 'she' is a 'he'. Sigh. :-? Just thought I'd give y'all a heads up about them being around again - either if anyone is looking for plakats or if anybody is looking for nice bright females and thinks they've found some! I think I read here somewhere a few weeks back about plakats being around and being sold as females. Both the LFS I visited this weekend have a bunch that look to be from the same brood – bright blue or red with very long red ventral fins – a bit grey looking too, with wild-type 'female' stripes – they do look like very good VT females. In any case, I'm going to see if the LFS I bought him from might take him back... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted January 26, 2009 Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 Probably is a male but females do flare and can be really stroppy. Try putting in a container within your tank and seeing what happens as a male will build a bubble nest and then you will have a definite answer. I haven't seen females up here for ages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink_fish Posted January 26, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2009 Thanks adodge – that's an idea, I'll give it a go this evening and will see what happens. I have had stroppy females before (and mine flare quite often) but they've all only been a bit wild to the other females in the tank, not to any of the other inhabitants, and given a day or so they all calmed down. Will report back later on after the bubble-nest test... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink_fish Posted January 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 Well, he is definitely a 'he' – when I got home last night I found him having started a bubble nest. So now I've moved him in with my fiesty blue rams – they all seem to have come to an arrangement now (i.e. if he nips them, they nip him, lol) so I guess I'll keep him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 What colour is he? What size is he? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink_fish Posted January 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 He looks to be youngish – around 6–8 mths old I'd say, and he's blue/green with long red ventral fins – pretty much the same as this VT I found on the net: http://z.hubpages.com/u/102022_f520.jpg – but our guy has a bit more red in his anal fin. He is more wild-type, I think, than the fish in the pic though – when stressed, his 'female'-looking stripes show up and his colour is greyish around the head (like a female). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matto Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 i brought a fighter female now a week later it blows a bloody bubble nest. how convenient lol !!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nycnlo Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 lol! is it a short finned plakat? some females will blow bubbles but not what id call a nest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matto Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 it is a super agro female that blows a nest my bad. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink_fish Posted January 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 matto – how long ago did you buy him? *wonders if is from the same hatching as own* (edit: maybe my bloke is a sheila then??!! Ah well, I'll just leave it where it is with the blue rams in any case...) nycnlo – didn't realise that. I guess then there's still a small chance my guy is a girl – but 'it' spends all day sizing up to his reflection in the back of the tank and/or sizing up to the male blue ram, lol. Whatever 'it' is, its pretty bolshy! Still no sight of an egg spot, and I think that at the age it is the spot should be visible if indeed it is female. It also has a distinctly masculine mouth (I've noticed that my females' mouths look quite different to the mouths of my other males which both have bigger, more pug-like mouths). The long ventral fins that it has are what convince me the most though - very long and very bright; all the females I've ever had before have only had short/small pale ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matto Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 i brought him/her at pet world in Hamilton about 1 1/2 weeks ago and now am pretty sure it is a female because it has a egg spot.when i put it in with my females it puffed up and then had a staring contest with my female with large fins .all good i guess that if it was a male i would have saved 5 bucks so anyway . just thought that i should say that my so called female is blue/green and has short fins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nycnlo Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 matto: yeah some females seem to be more dominant than others and do blow bubbles a wee bit... just dont seem to stick together as much like the males ones do. some female fighters seem to be pretty agro.. ive got this one female that only seems to like one of my crowntails... she hates her "pair" and trys to shred him .. any other fighter i try to pair her with shel do the usual chase stuff and looks like theyl do the deal.. next time you check shes attacked the male.. and she doesnt even have a nip on her!!! shes just a companion in the female tank for now till io decide if going to try again post some piks up of your fish if unsure of sex and will see if we can tell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joliet Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 ...Still no sight of an egg spot, and I think that at the age it is the spot should be visible if indeed it is female. Where is the egg spot on a female? I never knew to look for one! There's a bunch of females at Critter Kingdom but looking at some of them I'm sure at least two are really males and I'd love to be able to actually spot something on a female that could tell me for sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted February 1, 2009 Report Share Posted February 1, 2009 Just behind the ventral fins. Please note that young males can appear to have an egg spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nycnlo Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 joilet: yes those fighters at critter kingdom look to be unsexed! pretty sure they are about 2-3months old so still good to be together in the tanks im sure a few of the supposed females will turn out to be males.. check the size of fins.. generally a good indication.. pretty sure they are veiltales from memory but where pretty small.. egg spot should be viewable if you look hard enough.. but think its mostly viewable once at breedable age... ie 3-4months Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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