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I just bought a couple of new Apistogramma cacatuoides, I wanted to buy a m/f pair but the guy at the LFS and I couldn't really tell the sexes in them. The 2 do kinda stick together but I'm having trouble sexing them since apistogramma are new to me. Here's a few pictures to help.

These 4 pictures are all of the same fish that is more grey than the other. It is beginning to have a yellow face though.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2162.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2157.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2158.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2156.jpg

I wasn't able to get a very good picture of the 2nd fish but you can see from the pictures I did get that its very yellow.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2161.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2166.jpg

Looks to me like the first fish is male and the second one is female. Female Apistos have a more dull and uniform color than adult males, usually yellow. The first fish hasn't really brightened up, but it doesn't have a yellow body and is starting to get streaks of color. Pretty soon sexing the fish will be pretty obvious, but I'd say you've got a pair. That the two fish are hanging out together provides a push in that direction, too.

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I've also noticed 3 smaller horizontal stripes on the first fish (the gray one) below the lateral line. These stripes start a little behind the gills and extend most of the way down the body of the fish. Is this indicative of the fish being a male? You can see these pretty well in the 2nd picture.

imrandy85,

Just because you asked me in my log, here is what I believe. Upfront though, as you know I am known to buy not one but twice in a row pairs and ending up with only males, so the chances of me being off are pretty high.

Albeit the shots of the second fish are pretty bad when using as a gauge to judge the sex, the yellow color seems to indicate a female.

The first one may, or may not, be a male. I believe it is a female, but not a Cac. Why? because there is some yellow as well, the overall body shape is more female like, and I believe to have seen the round spot on the side (black) on pictures of female Apistos as well (can't recall which one though).

Try to add some more shots,

Ingo

Attached Image:

Male or Female? I say Female

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Took some more pictures this morning, good thing I left enough room in behind the tank so I could stick a camera back there. Here's the 2 fish again in the same order as before.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2173.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2172.jpg


I'm almost sure this one is a female:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2169.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/imrandy85/38%20gallon/101_2168.jpg

Hi Randy,
they are definitely Apisto. Cacuatuoides, and
they certainly look like a male and female.
Nice little fish.


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Sneaky, are you saying the gray one is a male and the yellow one is a female?

This one in your picture (I copied it below) is almost 100% for sure female, with the body color and the fin color being as is.

Your male (and I am sure So_Very_Sneaky knows it better than I do) is more of a puzzle for me? Yes, he could be male, but now he gets the vertial dark body markings. It took me quite a while but eventually I found female and male Cac pictures on the web where the fish has this round marking in the horizontal line, so that fits. Is he (let's assume it is a male) larger than the female? It seems to me that this fish is very young.

Do you happen to know what kind of Cacs these are supposed to be? Like double-red, orange flash, or something?

Ingo

Attached Image:

Female

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

The supposed male is smaller than the female but it seems very young so I don't think we can use size yet as an indicator. I don't know what color variation they are, the manager at the store said he could call where they got them though and he could find out if I really wanted.

the manager at the store said he could call where they got them though and he could find out if I really wanted.

Oh, you want to, and if it would only be for the reason so you can share it with us. I personally believe that knowing a lot about your fishies is a good thing, and identifying the specifics of your type is one piece of knowledge that is nice to have as you can see now in pictures as to what the fish will become when grown up

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club