Borellii female ID check

[FishMonkey]

Last time I brought apistos I got stiched up with different apistos (thanks for the ID last time @CRD ). I took them back and got 1M/3F from one Maidenhead and another 2F from a different Maidenhead to get a nice harem going.

They're all about the same size so I imagine they were new arrivals from the same batch in each branch but they all look a little different.

Can someone please confirm these are all borellii and that I haven't been stiched up again.. P.S. Ignore the picture of the male, he does this weird play dead thing where he curves up, clamps his fins, and goes a very bright pale blue which doesn't look great in photos

 

[Samala]

Most look to be females but there are a lot of blue spangles on the face of the "female" in photo 1 to the right side. Might be variation, but I'd watch "her".

The play dead thing sure is freaky isn't it!? First time I caught my male borellii doing this while interacting with a mirror I thought he'd had a stroke or something. Cannot work out if that is a dominance display or a submissive one. Sure seems like a submissive thing but have only caught the big adult male doing it. None of my juveniles have done it yet.

 

[Josh]

Gorgeous fish. Sorry I'm not much help for gender identification

 

[FishMonkey]

Most look to be females but there are a lot of blue spangles on the face of the "female" in photo 1 to the right side. Might be variation, but I'd watch "her".

The play dead thing sure is freaky isn't it!? First time I caught my male borellii doing this while interacting with a mirror I thought he'd had a stroke or something. Cannot work out if that is a dominance display or a submissive one. Sure seems like a submissive thing but have only caught the big adult male doing it. None of my juveniles have done it yet.

Haha I'm glad it is not just my Borellii who does this.

To me it definitely looks to be a submissive way of attracting new females while avoiding trouble. When I added an extra two females (obviously a bit scared with colour loss) he done it a lot more to the two additional Borellii and I definitely see it less (but still a lot lol) now that the male has settled in.