Juvenile cacatuoides sexing

[Alex.]

Hi,

I was sold a 'pair' of A. Cacatuoides, but I'm unsure as to whether the 'male' is actually a male.

They are both very small, the 'male' is about 2 - 2.5 cm long and the female is about 1.5 cm.

The 'male' has no lyre tail, and his colouration seems identical to that of a female.

I've never kept apistos before, so don't really know much about sexing them, but would it even be possible when they're this young? Is that what is leading to my confusion?

Here's a couple of pictures of the 'male'. Sorry for the poor quality...

Curved tail as opposed to lyre visible here:

Any help on identifying whether it's a male or female would be much appreciated

 

[Mike Wise]

I believe that your fish are too small (young) to confidently sex. Wait until the male is 5 cm/2" long. By that time the male will show higher dorsal spines and a squared off tail.

 

[Alex.]

I believe that your fish are too small (young) to confidently sex. Wait until the male is 5 cm/2" long. By that time the male will show higher dorsal spines and a squared off tail.

Will do.

Has anyone got tips on what to feed them? I was expecting them to be sexually mature, not this young.

Cyclops, daphnia? Will they take flake?

 

[Apistomaster]

My impression is that the fish shown in your photo is a female.
Some within every spawn are delayed developers so those can appear to be females for quite awhile, especially in the presence of many more dominant males. So I can't be 100% certain. I did recently raise about 175 Apistogramma cacatuoides to adults before selling them so my experience is still fresh in my mind. I am usually pretty good at sexing them early.
Even before there are clear signs of secondary sex characteristics, males tend to grow faster than females and are much more aggressive toward all other conspecifics. Anyone of these factor is not completely reliable but taken in the aggregate, these traits greatly improve the reliability of the conclusions.

Live Daphnia are a great food but my own experience with frozen Daphnia is that most fish don't eat it with much enthusiasm. Frozen Blood Worms and live newly hatched brine shrimp daily will promote rapid growth. So will a finely blended beef heart blend.

 

[Corine]

Will do.

Has anyone got tips on what to feed them? I was expecting them to be sexually mature, not this young.

Cyclops, daphnia? Will they take flake?

I have 60 of that size (and can't sex them yet either), and they eat flakes and enthusiastically chomp on the shrimp chunks as well.

 

[asimkhatri]

look's like female to mee..

 

[Alex.]

Two more pictures:

What was sold as a male

Female (the smaller one)