Sunbird73 Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 How do I sex them other than size?? I have 2 bigger (male - and behaving like it), 1 obviously clearly smaller (female) and one halfway between. The smallest is 1" excluding tail. The largest is about one third larger than the female. Any other way of sexing them? They say white edges to dorsal and anal fin = female. However mine are not on white silica so their edges tend to be black lined on anal fin and the white/gold is difficult to determine when they are camoflageing. And what size do they start breeding? My biggest male is flaring at the female, digging out the sand under his shell, and rearranging everything, and my female gets a black horizontal line down her spine (not sure if this is meaningful or not). Tho the female hasn't been shifting sand that I can see - too little? Or is that mans work....? I have one of the males in a chill out box soon to be moved out. Just trying to decide whether to shift the other one out too or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 None of my females have ever had any black edges to the fins. The females are very yellow in breeding colours and have yellow fins with light yellow trim. They have a shorter face, a shorter body and are about 2/3 the size of the males. Both sexes have blue shimmering scales on their sides. They start breeding when the female is around 3cm. The females will choose their shell, usually one that has several other shells right around it. If the female does not have the room to develop her own territory in a group of shells, she won't easily breed. The male and female both guard the area. Males will not tolerate other males in their territory but females can briefly cross into other territories. Sometimes a female will move into a male's territory, but it is easy to move her out if you move her shell while she is in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted March 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 Do you keep yours on the white silica sand Jennifer? Or do you have them on darker brown sand too (think daltons or builders sand can't remember)? The black comes and goes, depending on how they feel. It doesn't stay. There may be a white/gold edging to the anal fin but hard to see. There is pale gold on the last 3rd of the dorsal fin tho that stays whether they are camoflageing or not. Hard to tell the difference between white and gold trim tho! Must still be too babyish then with the camoflageing do you think? The smallest one does seem to have a shorter face. The middle sized one tho I have stared at for ages and just can't decide if its face is long or short, and is the hardest to see and gauge size cos its territory is far at the back. Tho that fish is not involved in any argy-bargy at all that is all from the two biggest ones, and seems to stick to its own area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 18, 2011 Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 I keep mine on medium grey sand from the beach. If you post some pics, that might help. They are hard to sex when young, then one day they just change and it is easy to sex them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted March 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2011 hmm... they might just be too young then. Have just recently taken out the dithers so that might be why the increased aggression lately. And they have only just starting shifting sand. Will try to get a pic but my camera is absolute rubbish at taking pics of fish :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted March 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 ok here are the rubbish pics, my camera only wants to focus on rocks and plants, scuse the ugly algae on the twisted val :oops: this is the middle sized one I am not sure about (suspect male?) This is the largest one, pretty sure he is male. This is the littlest one, think female Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 This is so hard to explain - it is a body and fin shape thing... but I am pretty certain the top two are male. The bottom looks male too, but it may also be too young to tell for sure. That is just my guess though. Post some more pics in a couple of weeks and we can re-evaluate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted March 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Yes it was hard to get them on a similar angle as well (y'know or at all) and the bottom pic the fish is on a more oblique angle so makes it harder to compare. The nose of the bottom pic looks longer in the photo than it does IRL. It would have been nice if they could have been more cooperative and all lined up together and posed for the photo for me sigh *cross fingers* I would like one to be female! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Here are some pics of some of my mature shellies (pics were taken when they were 6 to 10 months old). You can see the distinct differences in appearance as I described above. Hope that helps a little. Females Males Pairs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 beautiful fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted March 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 Awesome pics Jennifer (man do I need a new camera!), thanks for that, I will be comparing mine to yours over the next few weeks . Tho I must say if you hadn't labelled them I think I would still struggle to tell the M/F! Without the size to gauge the differences are a bit subtle to me :oops: Seems mine have a bit of growing to do. I have put some "rock walls" in, moved the val around, put some dithers back in and that has calmed down the niggliness for now. They are SUCH cute fish and so much bolshy personality, I love them :love: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted March 20, 2011 Report Share Posted March 20, 2011 When sexing fish based on photos I try not to say definitively since that is a sure way to be wrong! :roll: :lol: At any rate, your bottom two photos show fins that have black edges and I never see that in females, also all fish have a proportionally longer body than I usually see in females, but again in young fish it is hard to tell. Note in my pics how the females have short little faces, that will become more apparent as they get older, the colour change will also make it more obvious. Good luck, these are such great little fish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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