how to sex young fish from regani complex

[Matthias.couckuyt]

Hi,

I recently saw a nice picture on how to sex juvenile fish from the nijsseni complex (from mike wise)
Does this exist for regani complex?

I have a lot of 2 month old Ortegai juveniles and was wondering on when I would be able to determine their gender.

Kind regards,
Matthias

 

[Mike Wise]

Not that I know about. If they show no differences then they are too young. Behavior might be an indicator, but not always.

 

[Matthias.couckuyt]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reply!

They indeed show differences.
I can see that most of the fish have a thick black border in their pelvic fins, a lot more than even my adult males have. So i'm quite sure these are females.
They also show more black in the first 3 spines of their dorsal fin.
Also less spaces in the blacks on the bottom of their dorsal fin.

I think I have around 3 males and 7 females but they are only 2 cm so I will wait a little bit longer to be sure.
Sorry that not all pics are as sharp as they should be

1. Females

2. Female

3. Female and male below

4. Female

5. male

7. male

8. females

9. female

10. male

11. female

12. female

13. female

 

[mrjbacon]

I can't say for certain but I'm pretty sure the ones with black on the pelvic fins are all females. It's possible you have one or two males mixed in with them, but like Mike said, it's difficult at this point. The other ones look like definite males. If you can separate them, try putting all the juvies with black pelvic fins in their own tank and see if any males start expressing in the following weeks.

 

[Matthias.couckuyt]

I agree mrjbacon.
And thanks for the good tip!

 

[Matthias.couckuyt]

should I trust the black spots and space between the black spots on the bottom of the dorsal finn more than the blacks on the pelvic fin and first spines of the dorsal fin?
All my females have 3 non black spaces on the dorsal finn while all my males have more non black spaces in between the blacks. ( I hope everybody understands what I mean )

 

[Mike Wise]

Please realize that juvenile males look just like juvenile females for the first few months.

 

[Matthias.couckuyt]

Hi Mike,

Yes i do realize, but I was wondering if the black markings on the dorsal finn change or not.

 

[Mike Wise]

Dosal spots vary with the species, not so much with sex. These dark patches can expand and contract on the same fish depending on its mood. For your ortegai-subcomplex species I would look for the more colorful stripe through the middle of the dorsal fin to recognize males than looking at the width of the dorsal spots.

 

[vpik001]

Hi,

I recently saw a nice picture on how to sex juvenile fish from the nijsseni complex (from mike wise)
Does this exist for regani complex?

I have a lot of 2 month old Ortegai juveniles and was wondering on when I would be able to determine their gender.

Kind regards,
Matthias

If it is not too difficult, could you please post here the link to that thread where Mike explained how to sex juvenile fish from the nijsseni complex?

Thanking you in advance

 

[Matthias.couckuyt]

Sorry @vpik001 , can't seem to find it immediately