[jchild40]

When they are a 2-3 inches, would males have still have red fins? I have a couple that are not yet showing any blue in the face nor red in the body.

They look like what an adult female would looks like.

 

[papasmurf]

still look like females. I have a male that is about 2.5" and the only indication is the dorsal and anal fins are starting to develop points. I have had the fish for several months now since he was about 2" and the fins were starting to already to develop at that size.

 

[jchild40]

Mine have started to develop points as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, I bought two of them hoping that at least one of them would be a male.

How do you know that yours is a male, did you have any luck venting him? I haven't tried venting yet, figured that they are too young.

 

[papasmurf]

male. Sometimes I can faintly see some orange/maroon on his sides. I chose him from the tank at the LFS because he had the most pointed fins and was one of the more aggressive fish in the tank. He also was kind of jet black and has remained so for the most part. The females usually seem to be more silver though this is not necessarily a reliable way to sex them.

 

[jchild40]

Yeah, I assumed it is difficult to sex by color as a juvenile. As long as they shouldn't already be colored up at 2-3 inches, then I'm still optimistic (I'm shooting for an all male tank).

Mine have no silver at all; so there is still a strong possibility that they are both male.