Talk about frustration!

[mistakes r crucial]

This is the 4th pairing in 5 weeks and I can't seem to win a trick, I'm getting as frustrated as all helll. Does the below fish look like a female to you? It didn't to me, the finage looks decidedly male, the ventrals are nice and thick, the lips could have been thicker for a male but I thought I'd got it. No chance, two batches of eggs this morning and tubes as thick as your arm. Can someone please come here and pick me a male before I go mad!
MAC

[stonedavid]

Happens to us all Mac, keep trying matey its all part of the trials and tribulations of fish keeping
Pete

[samir]

maybe its because you're letting your mate Johnnie W do the picking :P thats a very nice fish male or not. oh and i noticed on your site that you changed your plumbing. did the tanks crack ? did give me a few ideas..
anyways good luck with the males. is that the albino ?

[mistakes r crucial]

We've paired her up with yet another fish so hopefully we'll get it right sooner or later. It's a Gold Leopard Samir and JW didn't pick this one, too early in the day for him lol!

We sure did change the plumbing but only on the front system. The back system uses 25ml tank flanges, there's only one outlet per tank and we've never had any problems. The front system is a totally different story as the outlets are far bigger and there are two per tank. Suffice to say a few of my mates were calling our place the house of the cracked tank for quite a while. Who needs enemies lol!
MAC

[ozarowana]

MAC you probably already know but males usually have their tubes pointing forward a bit. Some fish it is very obvious on others not so :ug

ps I hear there is Stendker discus coming to Oz for the first time.

Kind of like this

[mistakes r crucial]

I actually thought it was the other way around, the females pointed slightly forward and the male slightly backwards or straight down. It's still bloody difficult regardless!
MAC

[Robdog]

That makes sense as the female has to press the eggs onto the surface of the cone, slate piece, thermometer, filter intake or (insert any other ridiculous place for rearing young) and the male just acts like a crop duster I guess.

[mistakes r crucial]

So, what is it, females forwards or backwards? IME (made God knows how many mistakes already) the females have always looked like they point forward and the males straight down or slightly back and of course much smaller.

We need very experienced mods who are experts with male and female appendages to sort this out for us. Come on guys!
MAC

[ozarowana]

I read what I said in Discus the Naked Truth and comparing to fish which I definately know are male and female it holds true. But as you say nature is never as simple.

Get your friend Johnny to come over and keep doing it until you get fry :lol: