# blue acara male or female



## gibbo2838 (Jan 11, 2009)

Hi

I was after some advice on male and female Blue Acaras. I have been googling information and there are so many conlicting answers. Some say the male has long anal fins and others say the female has long anal fins, others say females have rounded anal fins. I find this true with my female Gold Saums but out of all the Blue acaras I have seen I can't recall seeing any with rounded fins.

Can anybody on this site please post some pics of confirmed males and females, preferably pairs they have bred. I have 3 Blue Acaras at the moment at sizes 4inches, 6 inches and another around 8 inches long.

Thanks in advance


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## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

8" Acara, sounds a little excessive on the measurement front 

Like most Americans, males tend to have extended, pointy dorsal and anal fins. This generally hints towards the sex but there are usually other tell-tail factors. With _Aequidens pulcher_ I'm not sure.

Here's some old shots of my old Female. 100% on the sexing as she laid numerous times.



















That's all I've got unfortunately. As the first photo shows you can still have females with quite pointed fins.

If you posted photographs of your fish it would help significantly.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

I've yet to see an 8" blue acara, most I've seen have been 5" SL, once I saw a 6" SL individual.

With my pair, I had to wait until I saw the egg laying process. As *Japes* picture shows, the fins were elongated and pointed on both the female and male. Once laid, I could still tell as the males were a bit longer than the females, but it wasn't noticable really before hand.


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## gibbo2838 (Jan 11, 2009)

I have taken some photos but I'm not sure how you post them in this forum. Any tips on how I can post them?


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## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

Upload them to Photobucket or imgshack and provide links.


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## gibbo2838 (Jan 11, 2009)

I will try and use image shack


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## gibbo2838 (Jan 11, 2009)

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/6131 ... rm0002.jpg


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## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

2 Females on the left and a Male top right at a guess. Don't consider that at all conclusive though.


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## gibbo2838 (Jan 11, 2009)

I have more pics. I just got side tracked when I was editing the post.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2321 ... m0003j.jpg

A pic of the 2 larger fish. I put a ruler up to the tank and the large one is about 17-18cm, so it is more like 7 inches not 8, his head is about 3cm wide as well if that helps.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/9945 ... rm0004.jpg

I think this is a female

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/4389 ... rm0005.jpg

Front on pic of the big fella

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/9642 ... rm0008.jpg

Another pic of the smaller fish in the background. They are in a holding tank with a coral sand bottom so they aren't showing much colour since they have been in there

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/371/ ... rm0009.jpg

Dwarfing the convicts

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5245 ... rm0010.jpg

Another pic of the 2 larger fish. They have been together 4 days and haven't left each others sides so I guess they may be male and female. The little one gets chased away as soon as it goes near them


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## japes (Jan 10, 2008)

Big boy is definitely a Male.

The other two I wouldn't be so sure about, there's one there that looks like it could also be a male. The one you think is a female (second photo) I would definitely agree with, and I'd be pretty confident the other smaller one (fourth photo) is also a Female but I'm not positive.

Hope this helps.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Deffinately think the big one is a male as well, the other two look female, but the smaller one could be just that, smaller and not dominate so not showing/growing as much even if male.


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