long dorsal rays on cacatuoides female

[ErtyJr]

Someone who bought some of my Apisto cacatuoides fry from me recently messaged me asking for an identification of the sex of this cacatuoides female. I have never seen anything like it, the first 3 rays are very long and she is only about 5 or 6 months old tops.

 

[gerald]

Looks a bit gender-confused: female color and male fins. It's fairly common for older females (2+ yrs) to get male-like characteristics, but I haven't seen that in young ones. Domestication can do funny things to a fish. Anyway if it lays eggs it's a female ... for now at least. Dwarflover had one actually change sex (had fry as a female, changed sex, then successfully fertilized another female's eggs). Photos are on here somwhere - about a year ago i think.

 

[ErtyJr]

Looks a bit gender-confused: female color and male fins. It's fairly common for older females (2+ yrs) to get male-like characteristics, but I haven't seen that in young ones. Domestication can do funny things to a fish. Anyway if it lays eggs it's a female ... for now at least. Dwarflover had one actually change sex (had fry as a female, changed sex, then successfully fertilized another female's eggs). Photos are on here somwhere - about a year ago i think.

Yup I was around when he had the female change. It looks extremely female to me, I have never seen the black stripe in the pelvic fins in anything but a female. And I have my doubts to it being male because it has never been introduced to a male ever, sneaker males are usually the results of being a sub dominate male and being bullied.

I'm thinking she is a female, and looks this way because of 1 of 2 possibilities.

1) she is the "alpha" female of the group and has grown extended rays as a result.

2) she is changing to male to fill a role that needs to be filled in this tank.

Or of course there is 3, the female just has the genes for extended dorsal rays Because of domestic breeding. I have bred my fish for finnage before color and she is one of my fry so it is possible.

 

[Jason82]

can a sneaker go so yellow?

 

[ErtyJr]

can a sneaker go so yellow?

Yes a sneaker can be that yellow. What I don't think they can mimic though is the black in the pelvic/ventral fins

 

[Mike Wise]

What I don't think they can mimic though is the black in the pelvic/ventral fins

To some extent they can - enough to fool an aquarist. Females of red strains of A. cacatuoides have developed so many masculine features that it's often hard to properly sex them. I know I have problems at times.

 

[ErtyJr]

To some extent they can - enough to fool an aquarist. Females of red strains of A. cacatuoides have developed so many masculine features that it's often hard to properly sex them. I know I have problems at times.

I suppose they likely can, especially with the quadruple red becoming more prominent. I just have never come across a sneaker male with that very prominent black stripe in the ventral fins, and I would guess that the feature is still a fairly accurate way to sex. Just not fool proof. However I have also seen females that don't have it as well and instead have the red/black checkering.

When you start dealing with tank strains though, in almost any species of fish, sexing the fish becomes very difficult.

I actually wanted to say all this the first time I posted, but I was busy at work and took a lazier approach. >.<

 

[Jason82]

Quadruple? Sounds like a trappist beer