Apistogramma Agassizi... Male or Female

[kaitlyn19]

This fire red agassizi was sold to me as a male a few months ago. A few days ago me and my husband were looking around in our tank to find a female agassizi to breed this one with. Well after finding a female, I looked at the fire red and started to think its actually a female, rather then a male that the guy said it was when we bought it. If this is true then I will need to buy some more males this weekend as I would LOVE to breed this fire red. If its a female, it is truly a beautiful female that's forsure. I have asked this on GTA aquaria forum as well but im not really getting any answers. Hope you all apisto experts can help me. I myself think its a female.. but I have always referred to it as a male cause that's what I was told. So u can understand my confusion. Anyways here "it" is..

 

[regani]

Those can be quite hard to tell apart especially when young. The most reliable way to identify males and females for me is to look for the iridescent markings on the faces, males have them, females don't. This worked at least once when I had to pick a new pair from the offspring I had from my original pair.
So, based on that I would say you have male.

 

[kaitlyn19]

Yes he does have the blue specals on the face. He however is not young.. Ive had him for about 3 months and im not sure how long the guy before me had him but he got him from a big als location so not sure on the exact age but I would say just under a year maybe. When do they stop growing?

 

[Mike Wise]

If this fish is over 2¼"/6cm long, then it's definitely a female. By that size the male would show a spade-shaped caudal fin.

 

[kaitlyn19]

I would say it is that exact size right now. So should I wait to see if it grows more before assuming its a female? Like I said it looks like a female but it does have the blue speckles in the face. I wish there was a sure fire way of telling..

 

[DZil]

I have the same problem, any ideas?

 

[davidjp1982]

I've had female Agassiziis with iridescent markings on their faces

 

[kaitlyn19]

I have the same problem, any ideas?

Mine was a female 100%. Ended up having a few successful spawns with her. Just add a picture and ill tell you if its male of female