Sexing A. eremnopyge

[jose_vogel]

Last week arrived to Argentina -for first time- A. eremnopyge.

I went to the importer because I want to chose good animals.

They´re indeed in good shape and they´re A. eremnopyge (all of them have the dark blotch on the lower third of the caudal peduncle).

But the problem is that I couldn´t distinguish sex (for me there are all males). The importer had almost 200 fishes; so the question is: how can I distinguish males from females?

If you answer me that the females always have the frontal part of the ventral fins in black... I´ll be in trouble because none of them have that.

Thanks in advance.

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi there,

Yes, black ventrals on the females is a standard sex discriminator for these guys (along with extensions to the front of the dorsal fin and lyreate caudal fin). With a lot of my juveniles (at about 1 to 1.5cm SL), the males are starting to show the blue and red flashing across the cheek area. Maybe this might be a guide for you if the ventral fins are not showing enough colouration to sex them.

Andrew

 

[Mike Wise]

Females do not have a spot pattern on the caudal fin.

 

[jose_vogel]

Thanks a lot. It seems that almost 30% doesn´t have lyrate caudal fin nor spotted pattern in that fin.

Thank you again.