marvelousone
New member
Is there a way to tell the sexes of Flame Angels. I have two flames in separate tanks. Would like to put them together. Would like to know if they are Male or Female.
Identify sexes
- Thread starter marvelousone
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trackhazard
New member
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2354584
Females in general have more rounded anal fins.
Females in general have more rounded anal fins.
Dmorty217
Saltwater Addict
This. Typically one will have thicker black bands than the other in addition to the rounded or pointed anal fin
ThRoewer
New member
I would be careful with sexing by fins alone as they may be local variations or have been injured and not grow back. I know of cases where people thought they had bought a male and a female mandarin only to find out that the suspected female was a male with a damaged fin.
And I would also be careful with taking the thickness of the black bars as a sexing indicator. While it is true that males have stronger and wider black bands the regional differences can be even bigger. So this only works when you know for sure that the fish in front you come from the same location.
On angelfish and especially dwarf angels there is a much better way: body proportions. Males are more stretched out than females. At the same height they are usually 10% to 25% longer.
This can be seen best on Centropyge argi and its close relatives.
To get an idea of the sex differences check out images of Centropyge loriculus and compare them.
Also to consider is that (almost) all angelfish females are in general capable of changing into a male if they are the dominant individual of the group/pair.
When pairing fish always introduce the larger sex (for angels and butterflies that is the male) to the tank where the smaller (female) has at least been for a day.
So if you have one that is slightly larger than the other and both don't look stretched out like males I would give it a try and place the larger one into the tank with the smaller one. To play it safe you can use a glass plate to partition off a corner/side where you introduce the larger one and then observe their behavior to each other. If the smaller one makes submissive gestures (body turned slightly on the side and into an "S" shape) and the larger one doesn't make any attempts to attack they will most likely get along.
Just in case I would recommend to always do this in a tank that you can quickly take a part to separate them if things don't work out.
And I would also be careful with taking the thickness of the black bars as a sexing indicator. While it is true that males have stronger and wider black bands the regional differences can be even bigger. So this only works when you know for sure that the fish in front you come from the same location.
On angelfish and especially dwarf angels there is a much better way: body proportions. Males are more stretched out than females. At the same height they are usually 10% to 25% longer.
This can be seen best on Centropyge argi and its close relatives.
To get an idea of the sex differences check out images of Centropyge loriculus and compare them.
Also to consider is that (almost) all angelfish females are in general capable of changing into a male if they are the dominant individual of the group/pair.
When pairing fish always introduce the larger sex (for angels and butterflies that is the male) to the tank where the smaller (female) has at least been for a day.
So if you have one that is slightly larger than the other and both don't look stretched out like males I would give it a try and place the larger one into the tank with the smaller one. To play it safe you can use a glass plate to partition off a corner/side where you introduce the larger one and then observe their behavior to each other. If the smaller one makes submissive gestures (body turned slightly on the side and into an "S" shape) and the larger one doesn't make any attempts to attack they will most likely get along.
Just in case I would recommend to always do this in a tank that you can quickly take a part to separate them if things don't work out.
Dmorty217
Saltwater Addict
With flame angels this is pretty straight forward, anal fins. I wouldn't buy a fish that had damaged fins in the first place. Body proportions like mentioned above will work for some things but isn't 100%. For instance potters angels are easily sexed by color variation, not body size. Google pacific island aquatics, no longer in business but they have images on google that show pairs and the differences in them. I used the picture from them to get a pair sent to me from Quality Marine, when they weren't sold as a pair
marvelousone
New member
They are about the same size. They are in different tanks. I have had one of them for a year the other one I just got couple weeks ago. Sorry for the bad pic. I will try to get better ones tomorrow. This is the one I got a couple weeks ago.
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