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Female A. Cacatouides Colouration


vwboy53

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Does the female A. Cacatouides have little or no red / orange colouration on the fins, particularly the tail fin?

From all the photos I have seen, it seems that the tails are plain in colouration.

I think I might have 3 males and no females!

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Does the female A. Cacatouides have little or no red / orange colouration on the fins, particularly the tail fin?

From all the photos I have seen, it seems that the tails are plain in colouration.

I think I might have 3 males and no females!

They can have some colour in their tail nowhere near as much as males. This is about as much colour as my females get :

user posted image

compare that to males :

user posted image

another way to tell is the front of the ventral fins. They are black in females and grey/clear in males.

If all three of your fish are > 2cm and look similar they are all the same sex.

Dean

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Sorry for the delay in uploading pics!

Well, this fish is the one which constantly hides in the cave, but it is also the smallest of the lot.(2cm)

user posted image

This is the biggest one(3-4cm), which I think is male and always struts about.

user posted image

And Lastly, this one is the medium size one, however it is not looking too great at the moment, it just sits there most of the time.(2.5-3cm)

user posted image

All the fish look the same in terms of colouration, but the smallest is a little pailer but not much.

On a side note, I have never seen any of the fish eat, and I have tried various foods including frozen brine shrimp, dried blood worms, dried planaria worms, cichlid flakes, tropical flakes, sera 4 type cichlid pellets, corydora wafers, algae wafers. But I dont stay and watch for hours, so they must eat something!?

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the last two are certainly male. I can't see the first well enough to tell for the first one. My guess is that it is male based on the size of the lips. They are much less pronounced on females. He may be staying in the cave to avoid the dominant male.

You are right that the last one doesn't look too happy. It may be worth moving him to another tank to see if he was being bullied by the bigger male. Three males and no females can be disaster waiting to happen particularly if the tank is small. How long have you had them and what size tank are they in?

Lastly, not eating is unusual for cacatuoides. They are usually outgoing greedy pigs. Stick to the frozen brine shrimp and try to sqirt a couple of shrimp near each fish.

Dean

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The tank is 10g or 25L . I know, its a little cramped, its only temporary till I shift them to my main 2ft tank.

I have had the fish for almost 2 weeks. I initally thought the lack of eating was because they were in a new environment.

I will move the unhappy one to my other tank, but I may have to consider moving the smaller one. I'll try feeding them Brine shrimp regularly to encourage them to eat.

Is it possible for the larger a. cacca. to go with my Blue Acara? as its only 6cm. Its in a 1ft 18" tank. Again temporary

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys,

sorry for the hyjack but same question...

The dominant one with better colour I assumed was a boy but it has black on those fins which says it's a girl?

user posted image

Subdominant - the opposite of above.

user posted image

C'mon experts, what have I got?

Thanks,

Ash

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Top one is certainly a female. Bottom one depends on size. What size is it? Post a few more pics preferably with the dorsal fin up and I'll take a guess. Others may be able to tell from that photo, I'm not sure.

Dean

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At a guess, A cacatoides not being my thing, I would say the second one is a subdominant possibly still juvenile female hence the lack of black.

I happy to be proven wrong smile.gif

As Dean says, a pic with the dorsal extended would help.

Cheers

Steph

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