# Male or Female red fin borleyi?



## MandyBlue (Mar 19, 2011)

Bought 2 of these, one is like the picture, and the other has started to get blue fins, and a reddish color to its body. Thinking this one might be female?


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Looks like my old female. Looks maybe 3-4"?


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## MandyBlue (Mar 19, 2011)

Yes its about 3-4" its always with the other one I bought it with, but the other one has changed colors and is now larger.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

MandyBlue said:


> Yes its about 3-4" its always with the other one I bought it with, but the other one has changed colors and is now larger.


They are a pair then. Are you going to breed them?


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## MandyBlue (Mar 19, 2011)

No, do not want to breed at all. I have an all male show tank, and some times I get stuck with a female when I order fish, so thats why I always buy 2.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

MandyBlue said:


> No, do not want to breed at all. I have an all male show tank, and some times I get stuck with a female when I order fish, so thats why I always buy 2.


Better take her back asap as you will start WW3. That is what happened to me. I had a hard time sexing these fish but as much research as I have done I feel I am the worlds foremost expert on sexing these fish by looks LOL.


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## MandyBlue (Mar 19, 2011)

I bought them in July, and have not had a problem, wondering if fish have some sort of "puberty"


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

MandyBlue said:


> I bought them in July, and have not had a problem, wondering if fish have some sort of "puberty"


Yes...when they get ready to spawn they will start getting aggressive. The male will chase the female and other males in the tank. The female will start to nest in a area and chase away ALL other fish including the male until after she lays and scoops up the eggs. After she lays the eggs she will scoop them up and the males will try to mate with her. It can get rough. This is exactly what happened in my 75g with my female red empress, female ruby red, female red fin borleyi and female fryeri. It was a NIGHTMARE!! You will notice the overall aggression level of the tank start to go up for sure. If you are trying to have an all male tank you need to get the females out now. Once the female is about to lay eggs the male trying to mate with here will become very aggressive especially in a small tank chasing all other fish to the top and sides of the tank(at least this is what happened in my 75g). If you remove the female the male will still be aggressive not realizing the female is not in the tank anymore. He will probably still have a little nest created somewhere trying to lure in the female so he can fertilize the eggs. He will keep that nest for quite some time. I had to remove my albino eureka red for this very reason. I destroyed his little nest and removed him to my 30g for about a month.

If you are going for an all male tank and you know you have a female in there or suspect it is a female I would definitely advise removing the female as soon as you can to avoid the nightmare I went through.


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## MandyBlue (Mar 19, 2011)

Oh boy! And I bet this will start very soon as she is about 3 1/2 inches and he is 4". Will try to pawn her off on someone this week. Thank you very much for the info.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

MandyBlue said:


> Oh boy! And I bet this will start very soon as she is about 3 1/2 inches and he is 4". Will try to pawn her off on someone this week. Thank you very much for the info.


Mine started when she hit about 4" exactly but that doesn't mean that yours will. Hard to predict. It may come after a large water change. Hard to know that is why it is best to get her out asap.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Can you post a pic of your male? I am very curious to see him. Also...how big is he?


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## MandyBlue (Mar 19, 2011)

Looks like he ended up in a few of the pictures I was taking, dont really have any focused on him though. They looked exactly the same back in July.










you can really see the color difference in this picture, he is on the left and she is one the right under the hawk.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Looks just like my male. I posted a pic in another thread...here is the link.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... highlight=

I think mine is smaller though. Mine is about 3".


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## MandyBlue (Mar 19, 2011)

Looks like yours might have more of its "big boy" colors. I love watching them change, but wish it was faster!


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

MandyBlue said:


> Looks like yours might have more of its "big boy" colors. I love watching them change, but wish it was faster!


These fish grow really fast. Some of the fastest growing africans I have had in the past. I found one about 15 years ago at wal mart of all places. It was in a tank labeled assorted africans. I didn't know much about them at the time but it looked different in its body shape and color of the fins. It was just gray with orange fins. I bought him he was about 1.5" and within 6 months he had grown to about 6" and had full male colors and fins.

Water changes, good food and stable water chemistry will help them grow like weeds. I do about 70% water changes every 4 days. Sometimes I do 50% in between the four days.


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