How do you sex Angels?

Hi,

I'm wanting to get a male Angel, but have no idea how to tell if an angel is a male or a female short of the female laying eggs, or growing out a breeding pair. Are their any clues you can give to help me learn how to tell if an angel is a male or female? Thanks. Dawn

Ok the way to tell the difference besides bulges and bumps is the small pinkish organ on the under side of the fish (papilla) Males are pointed like a pencil and females are more blunt like a straw!! I have heard one person say that the male looks like a calla lily!

.......Waiting for Adam to add more

the best way to do it is buy directly from a breeder that knows what they have. what type of angel are you wanting?

Adam that was a really bad answer. haha Was almost like saying I could tell you but id rather sell you a fish.

not really when you consider the fact that you cant simply guess. ive been wrong many times on who was what, and i also find it highly unlikely that the angels will be spawning at the store when she is checking them out. thus how would she be able to see the tube? some males will have a hump on thier forehead, but not all. finally you are getting what you pay for when you are buying a confirmed or proven male or female fish, not guessing for sure.

Actually Adam's answer is spot on. Technically Angels are not sexually dimorphic (I believe that is the term) which means there are no outward differences in males and females of size or coloration, Discus come to mind as another example. Things like livebearers, Bettas, most Gouramis and most Tetras (to name a few) all have either obvious size, fin configuration or coloration differences that set the sexes apart.

I know there are some that think they can look at an Angel and tell, but my guess is that they are probably wrong as much as they are right (unless the fish are breeding when the differences are obvious).

None the less, since Adam breeds Angels, I would think if I was looking for a specific sexed Angelfish he would be the first person I would go to. I doubt I would go to Petco or someplace like that to ask a question like this that requires a more expert level of knowledge. That's not knocking Petco, it's just that they don't normally staff their store with that level of expert, and the fish they have are probably too juvenile to tell anyway.

Plus I think Adam would have a better selection and higher quality of fish than a LFS as well. Again, not knocking the LFS’s as Sam might have some decent ones and would know as well.

And I think that supporting a fellow CITAC member is always a good idea.

DZ

Oh i agree wth Adam And I agree with you saying he has great Angels. I own about 10 of his right now and they are beautiful fish. I was just making a joke about how I read his post is all.

Thank you all for your answers. I had actually meant to ask this at the last meeting, just because I've always been curious but was too shy. Then the other night I was on Craigslist and saw someone that had what they called Large Angels for sale. So I got excited thinking that I had finally found an older male Angel for my lone female Angel. But then I find out that the angels are only 6 months old and obviously you couldn't tell if they were pairing off at that age. Also, I did all this without talking to Kevin, and then found out that really we aren't ready for another angel as Kevin really wants to redo that tank. Adam, I definitely will get ahold of you when and if I need a male Angel, but now my hopes are that I will have an odd male out of the 5 we got at the last meeting and he will eventually be able to go in with my 2 yr old angel.

do you mean the 5 i gave you at dime size? if so you will be waiting a year or better.

As I would say the person who can look at a angel and say that is a male is right about 50 % of the time. The only real way to tell is to see them in action. Most of the times the male are usually more aggressive but that is in general.

I had a beautiful long fin black angel, also known as the kiss of death or the black widow. I saw this angel lay eggs multiple times. She was a female and their was no question about it, I seen her lay the eggs. The fins, the color oh what a girl. The problem was she would start laying eggs and the male would try to make them fertile and she would go after him and before she was done laying eggs or shortly after she would lay the eggs she would kill the male. I tried everything to get some of those eggs to live but she would not have it. I put plants in the tank only to find her mate dead before she was done laying. I decided to put a bigger male in the tank but God rest his soul, he never made it. She was a beauty to look at and after loosing four males to her she died with out a single off spring.

Dawn I have a koi pair that I will loan out after I get one more batch of eggs from the pair if you want to try your luck.
They will not parent raise so you will have to pull the eggs and hatch them out. I can give you step by step directions if you are interested.



Mark

Mark,

As fun as it sounds to have a bunch of baby angels, we really are not set up for that at this time. I really appreciate everyone's friendliness and have learned a lot. I look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting. Dawn

Adam,

I was referring to the babies you gave me at the last meeting and I'm more than aware that it will be a year or more. That is fine with me. If I need an angel before then I will get ahold of you. Thank you. Dawn

no problem dawn. you got some winners there from some stock i paid high dollor to aquire. the mother is a smokie marble pariaba i got from neil oyama in hawaii, and the father is a dark pinoy clown i got from damon cartmell in st louis. the combination makes some amazing babies. mark has a bunch of the blue marbles and marble pariabas from this pair. many others available

Mark,

We absolutely love the angels we got from you. They are in our living room and we can see them anytime we want. They are so beautiful and growing quickly. They are easily nickel size. I mean Adam, my brain has been out to sea all day long. I'm a ditzy blonde almost all the time but today has been even worse... Lol

Adam how do you remember all of that? I have trouble remember my kids birthdays for crying out loud. haha