# Females fighting like males?



## nikelodeon79 (Nov 27, 2007)

I purchased what was supposed to be 1m/4f Rusties. The male Rusty was about a half an inch larger than the females, so was easily identifiable.

About a week after I added them to my tank, I found the male Rusty dead. I blamed the male Hara because he was (supposedly) the only other male in the tank old enough to cause any issues.

At the same time I added the Rusties, I also added two "unsexed" Haras. The seller was going to attempt to send females but I'm fairly certain one of them is male.

Yesterday, I saw one of the Rusty "females" and the young Hara that I believe is male fighting pretty aggressively.

My question is this: do females fight as aggressively as males, or is it more likely that one of my Rusty "females" is actually male?

ETA: I'll try to get pictures later, but all of the Rusties I received are dark like the photo of the male in the profile. None of them are the light/silvery color like the female pictured on the site.


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## Sparrk (Oct 11, 2010)

probably male, my females kenyi do fight each other, but they wont fight other species the agression is only toward other female kenyi, but kenyis are mean...


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## lilcountrygal (Dec 27, 2011)

None of my female Rustys are light/silvery. My males have more of a purple tinge to them and my females are more the color of Rust, but really both fish look very similar. Most of my Rustys came sexed, so it was easy for me to see the difference, but there isnt a drastic difference (as far as silvery color). I wouldnt use color alone tho.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

nikelodeon79 said:


> do females fight as aggressively as males


Yes, sometimes even more aggressively. But if you are stocked 1m:4f the damage should not be excessive unless you have a psycho individual.


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## Shahlvah (Dec 28, 2011)

Maybe he does has a psycho female....she already killed the male....I'm just thinking....and I thought rusties where so nice...Oh my. :?


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## riverpaws (Dec 7, 2011)

Right now, I have a female Cynotilapia afra who is bigger than everyone else in the tank other than the dominant male. She is BOSSY. She fights with the sub dominant males all the time. I thought maybe she was a sub-dom too until tonight when I found her very obviously holding eggs. She has stressed one of the smaller sub dominant males out so much every time he sees her, he goes the other way. I was under the impression this was not female behavior, but she has definitely changed my mind.


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## Dogtanian (Jan 27, 2011)

Unfortunately you cannot sex Rustys by colour, eggs spots, body shape etc. I have never seen a female rusty with the same silvery appearance as those featured on the species profile on this website (I think this is misleading).

A good rule of thumb is that the males will outgrow females and be more aggressive to their own species. But I have also seen female rustys being aggressive to each other and fighting with similar size female yellow labs.

I have not found rustys to be the peaceful mbuna that the profiles would have you believe. Personally, I wish the moderators would update the aggression level to at least that of yellow labs, no end of people have experienced aggression problems. I had to remove a holding female last week as she was getting beaten up very badly by the male (and he also badly attacked another male, which was unsexed at the time, and I had to take back to the LFS).

They are lovely fish though.. so good luck! :thumb:


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## Dogtanian (Jan 27, 2011)

If you would like to know what a male vent on a rusty looks like, see this thread.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=237703&highlight=

These are some photos I took of (yet another!) excess male before sending him back to the LFS.


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