A. cacatuoides - Another Female I.D needed

[Sunbird73]

Just wondering - do the sleeper males develop the yellow tinge as well (like the females do?)

I *think* I have a female. She is about half the size of the male, less colouring, more shy & she gets a yellow tinge when I feed her...

Or can you really not tell with sleeper males at all?

[supasi]

Mine dont have any yellow, but you can tell the females as the first rays of the dorsel fin are black. Do you have any pic?

How do they behave around the male?

[Caldwell]

The back of the dorsal fin has organge dots. This is the smaller less dominant male.

[ryanjury]

Good females can get some colour on them, on their tails or dorsal fin. Usually as Simon has said the first few rays of the dorsal fin are longer in males (even sleeper males) but it can be very hard to tell especially if the fish are younger, I have purchased quite a few "pairs" of young apistos over the years and got 2 males I could tell pretty much in the bags but based on size and lack of colour can easily see how the mistake was made.

[Bilbo]

I have had a male that mimicked a female until all the other females had gone and he had to 'come out' because the male was trying to breed with him.

He had no male markings at all, was well over a year old, full adult female size and even put on a pretty yellow dress sometimes but, of course, never spawned. When he changed it happened really quickly, over a month or so he grew all the fin extensions and developed male markings.

This has happened to me with cacatuoides recently and agassizi a few years ago but with agassizi it was reversed because he didn't change until the dominant male died and it was a tank of females. At the time I was sure that I had seen a sex change.

[supasi]

I have had a male that mimicked a female until all the other females had gone and he had to 'come out' because the male was trying to breed with him.

He had no male markings at all, was well over a year old, full adult female size and even put on a pretty yellow dress sometimes but, of course, never spawned. When he changed it happened really quickly, over a month or so he grew all the fin extensions and developed male markings.

This has happened to me with cacatuoides recently and agassizi a few years ago but with agassizi it was reversed because he didn't change until the dominant male died and it was a tank of females. At the time I was sure that I had seen a sex change.

Tranny fish

I have half a dozen at the moment. One is obvious the alpha male and the rest a easy to tell the sexes.

The females will be darker on the black areas. When I remove the dominant male, the next dominant colours up more.

[Sunbird73]

Sorry crappy camera, dirty glass

[ryanjury]

That fish is 100% a male, colour and pointed top/bottom edges to tail and no doubt raised dorsal fin extensions if it was shown in the pic.

[supasi]

Agreed, Male

[phoenix44]

Yeah, definitely a male. I like the yellow.

[Sunbird73]

unfortunately I can't get a decent pic of my definite male to compare. The "female" definitely does not have the raised dorsal fin extensions when its shown, or the tail fin extensions that my male has.

But I see your point about the pointed edges to the tail tho... hmmm, poos. Was skeptical of its femaleness cos apparently there were only 3 in the batch (made me think possibly all male?)

Should I keep it by itself to get him to show his maleness?

tho found this pic of a female on the net (in german tho) which also has a lot of colour, and the pointed edges to its tail?

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/se/fisk ... ichlid.php

(of course am grasping at straws cos I want it to be female)

[phoenix44]

I'd keep him separately or in another community tank or similar without any other male cockatoos and see what happens then.

[Sunbird73]

Thanks P44, was thinking the same thing - was faffing around with photos when you posted

Have another pic to post with dorsal fin slightly raised but cannot seem to get it to load even tho it is under the required size, it says its not :evil:

[SamH]

Have another pic to post with dorsal fin slightly raised but cannot seem to get it to load even tho it is under the required size, it says its not :evil:

Email it to me @ [email protected]. I'll resize it

[Sunbird73]

Email it to me @ [email protected]. I'll resize it

Thanks Sam, have sent you an email. Think the fnzas website just doesn't approve of my photography skills :lol:

[SamH]

Questionable Gender:

Male:

[Sunbird73]

thanks Sam, you are a star

The extension on the dorsal fin on the top one is an optical algae illusion :oops:

and scuse the pic of the scratched glass in the second photo

[SamH]

thanks Sam, you are a star

No worries 8)

[phoenix44]

It probably used to be a female at some stage :lol:

[the-obstacle]

Thanks for the heads up guys. I've just got a 'pair' but after looking at this I'm sure it's a pair of males.

[supasi]

Both look like males to me.

If the top was a female she would have darker pelvic fins.

Ill try get a picture of my female to compare it with.

[ryanjury]

Here is a pic of my female cockatoo click to make it bigger she is in breeding colours.

[Sunbird73]

nice pic thanks

[the-obstacle]

I think I got 2 males as well but was told they were a pair. Here are the pics

The bigger one is definitely and I assume the smaller one is a male too. Am i right or have I got a flashy girl?

(I can't figure out how to do the image thing, what's the trick?)

[phoenix44]

Not sleepers... just males.