Heros severus... m or f ??

[blackghost]

I think its female, but I have my doubts because of
a) the dorsal extension
b) the tube is part-down, and although I know you cant tell from a partly-down tube outside of breeding, this one really does look like the tip of a male tube. It looks too long to be the corner of a female tube
c) another forum (EACG) has confirmed my suspicion that not every individual is cut-and-dried easy to tell from the gill-spots(somebody raised fry from two spotless fish?)

Btw, the fish is nearly 8"TL.









Thank you for your help

[DRE]

One way to determine sex is the red color on the side. On females it does not go higher than middle of the fish, while on males it can reach up to the the lateral line. Based on this I'd say you have a male.

Also males in adulthood get spots on the cheeks, but far less than other Heros.

Have a look here if you wish:
http://www.ciklid.org/artregister/artre ... php?ID=426

and

http://www.ciklid.org/artregister/artre ... .php?ID=75

/David

[a.d.wood]

One way to determine sex is the red color on the side. On females it does not go higher than middle of the fish, while on males it can reach up to the the lateral line. Based on this I'd say you have a male.

Also males in adulthood get spots on the cheeks, but far less than other Heros.

David

Spotting on the cheeks I understand and have seen but it is variable. The red only going half way up the females side though is something I have never read before and as with all things in biology (exceptions to rules) my female disproves this theory!!

This was my own breeding pair, male (sporting good spots and plenty of red) followed by the female (with no spots but plenty of red!):



Andrew

[notho2000]

Based upon my mature F0 'severus' and the pics shown, It would seem that the range and extent of the red horizontal lines must be quite variable from population to population. The red in one of my females extends higher up than in the male, and none of mine presently show the red as high up on the sides as those pictured (about half way up). My male has spotting on the chin and gill plates but very minimal. None of my females have any sign of spotting there. I have a bunch of F1s coming up that are about 1 1/2- 2", and the spotting is present on the young males even at that small size. No red on the sides as yet.

[DRE]

Interesting reading!