Sexing agassizii fire red

[Alapfish]

Hi, I am just looking for opinions on these agassizii. It’s my first time keeping the fire red variant so I’m not massively experienced at sexing them. In the shop I thought I got one obvious male and one possible female. Now they’re home I’m starting to think I absolutely have 2 males. Any help is appreciated thank you.

 

[Apistoguy52]

I see two boys…

 

[Alapfish]

I see two boys…

Yeah that’s what I was thinking, I’ll see how they get on and possibly add 2 females at a later date. Hopefully next time I'll be able to do better at picking them out

 

[KenL]

Why not see if you can return one male in exchange for a female?

 

[MacZ]

It looks like community tank setting, in which case I would just return one of them and leave it that way. 2m/2f in a community is going to be stressful for everybody, fish and human alike.

 

[Alapfish]

It looks like community tank setting, in which case I would just return one of them and leave it that way. 2m/2f in a community is going to be stressful for everybody, fish and human alike.

I'll see if they take returns. If not I have options as the tank is 4ft so I think I'd get away with 2 males and 2 females, I also have another tank that I have been wanting to use to try breed either rams or apistos that I could put a pair in I'd need be. Thank you all for your feedback

 

[anewbie]

Possible but unlikely two males will work if you add female(s).

 

[MacZ]

I'd rather expect it to work without females. Also if they already had problems delivering correctly I'd not risk it.

 

[Alapfish]

Thank you for the advice, I went to the shop today and had a look and it appears that all the stock they have just now are males. I was told when they get more stock in they would happily take one of the males for a female. I’m going to see how these two get on and will only swap if I’m 100% certain I’m getting a female. I know they’re generally smaller and have more rounded fins and not really any trailing fins. Any other tips on how to point out females? They seem a lot more difficult to sex than the more common variant's. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[anewbie]

Thank you for the advice, I went to the shop today and had a look and it appears that all the stock they have just now are males. I was told when they get more stock in they would happily take one of the males for a female. I’m going to see how these two get on and will only swap if I’m 100% certain I’m getting a female. I know they’re generally smaller and have more rounded fins and not really any trailing fins. Any other tips on how to point out females? They seem a lot more difficult to sex than the more common variant's. Thanks again for all the help.

Domestic bred fishes can be difficult to sex at a young age because a lot of the identiifers have been bred out of them. In truth i find it difficult to sex many wild caught fishes until they are nearly full grown and true dimorphism sets in - in general the petral fins will be smaller as well as the anal fin shaped a bit different but these things will be less so when the fish is younger - for wc agassizii the female will have much less colour but of course for fire red or other domestic they have been bred to have more colour. There is still a tiny chance your 2nd fish is a female but like others i think it is a male.

 

[Alapfish]

Domestic bred fishes can be difficult to sex at a young age because a lot of the identiifers have been bred out of them. In truth i find it difficult to sex many wild caught fishes until they are nearly full grown and true dimorphism sets in - in general the petral fins will be smaller as well as the anal fin shaped a bit different but these things will be less so when the fish is younger - for wc agassizii the female will have much less colour but of course for fire red or other domestic they have been bred to have more colour. There is still a tiny chance your 2nd fish is a female but like others i think it is a male.

Domestic bred fishes can be difficult to sex at a young age because a lot of the identiifers have been bred out of them. In truth i find it difficult to sex many wild caught fishes until they are nearly full grown and true dimorphism sets in - in general the petral fins will be smaller as well as the anal fin shaped a bit different but these things will be less so when the fish is younger - for wc agassizii the female will have much less colour but of course for fire red or other domestic they have been bred to have more colour. There is still a tiny chance your 2nd fish is a female but like others i think it is a male.

Yeah from what I’ve seen apart from it being smaller it seems to have elongated pectoral fins and dorsal fin, the only thing that I think makes it have a possibility of being a female is it doesn’t have a spade shaped tail but I think it’s just because it’s a young fish like you have said. When I go back I’m going to find the one with the shortest find and least colour (excluding one that looks sick obviously) and hope for the best.