# Red Empress and Taiwan Reef .. Male or Female?



## Cromak (Dec 29, 2010)

Hello, I'm new here. I've known about this forum for ages just never had a reason to sign up until now.. I just picked up (what I hope are males) Red Empress and a Taiwan Reef.

I never realized how hard it would be to take pictures of these **** things :lol:

Anyways let me know what you guys think, Do these look like Males? We did our best at trying to determine if they are males or not.. so hard to say at this point.. They are about 1.5 inches


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## wilsonj88 (Sep 29, 2010)

for the empress, i find the easiest way to guess at a sex without venting would be to check the shape of the dorsal and anal fins. rounded are female and pointed are male


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## Cromak (Dec 29, 2010)

wilsonj88 said:


> for the empress, i find the easiest way to guess at a sex without venting would be to check the shape of the dorsal and anal fins. rounded are female and pointed are male


This is exactly how we tried to determine the empress (actually both for that matter) This was the only one in the tank that had noticeable pointing dorsal and anal fins. I'm hopeful these are both males going by that determination.. :thumb:


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## wilsonj88 (Sep 29, 2010)

im crossing my fingers for you! and just to let you know, my emptress is 5 inches and he didnt really start shoing any color untill about 3 or 4


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## Cromak (Dec 29, 2010)

wilsonj88 said:


> im crossing my fingers for you! and just to let you know, my emptress is 5 inches and he didnt really start shoing any color untill about 3 or 4


Thanks, i am hoping as well..  how long did yours take to get about that big? I did a little searching and it looks like 1 to 1.5 years before they really start to change.


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## wilsonj88 (Sep 29, 2010)

i picked him up at about 2 inches and it took about 9 months for him to double in size lol. i do alot of water changes in my tanks to help the juvies that are in my tanks grow


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

That is not a Taiwan Reef, not even that close. Body and head shape off not right, as well as the markings. Might be hybrid, don't really know.

As for male... possibly could be but too hard to tell, since they have no color. First signs of color is usually some color in the dorsal and anal fin, and some shiny blue in the face. There is no magic way to tell, except see the male characteristics.


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