Just a few questions about sexing

Hi all like I said in another post I have a lot to learn when it comes to these fish so here is a start with a few questions.
1- I own 4 abns and 3 of the 4 are definately males and Im startin to think the fourth one is a female. Here are my reasons; The suspected female is the only one that is not a really deep yellow/orange colour. She is more of a pink.
She is the only one without the triangular marking on the head. But she has bristles around the lip area with 2 slightly longer ones on the tip of the nose.
The males all have the standard longer chunkier bristles.

2- I also own 2 peppermints which I think are female even though they both also have the bristles much like the way I described the ones on the suspected female abn.Although these pepos are a lot more plump than the others. I dont know weather that is just cos of the particular species or not. Could they have eggs in them or is this impossible with no def male of their own kind in the tank or could it be they are just well fed?

All up I guess what Im saying is that I am too inexperienced to sex these fish although I find the commons very easy. I should mention that all of the above fish are atleast 2.5 yrs old and around 4 inches long.Thanks for any help.
There will be pics hopefully soon when I get my head around how to transfer them onto this site from my computer.

Pics mate - alltough @ 2.5 years old you should be able to tell -
at least with pics, some one here should steer you down the right
track.
J

One of my peppermints (Male or female?)
[img][/img]
Same one again ( 11.5cms )
[img][/img]
Here is the abn with the shortest bristles( triangle shape showed up with flash)You can see what I mean by this abn being pinkish and the others are orange.(Suspected female or am I wishful thinking)This one is 8.5cms
[img][/img]
This is my other pep with a couple of albinos
[img][/img][img][/img][img][/img]
sorry about the bad pic quality it will get better I just need some practice at taking shots so close up and thru glass. And the peps are very hard cos they only come out at night.

Your first 2 pic's are a defo male...
The third pic of the albino is a defo female....
Picture's 4 and 5 also are male's...

And the last pic looks like the first pic so i would go with a male on that one..

Great pic's axle its good to see you posting pic's mate..

Great Job....

If the bristles fork, then it is definately a male.

If the nose profile (as if human) is humped, it's male. If it's inverted it's a female.

Hope that helps

Thanks for your help guys. It just shows how good I am at picking the sexes. I thought that both of my peps were female! I thought they would have a lot more bristles than that at this age thats all. I think all my pep pics are of the same one this time I will again try to get some more to post. Cheers

axle wrote:

Thanks for your help guys. It just shows how good I am at picking the sexes. I thought that both of my peps were female! I thought they would have a lot more bristles than that at this age thats all. I think all my pep pics are of the same one this time I will again try to get some more to post. Cheers

cheers axle mate good posting keep um coming pal.....

Kool to see some pix axle:
first pepp pic defo male
third pic of the albino ? I've been told that red patch is more prominant
with males , does this fish have bristles running down the center of it's
face yet?
fourth pic defo male, can you see the bristles starting to run
through the middle of his face , just like the pepp in the first pic.
Don't quote me on the 3rd pic as I've never kept ABN,only relaying what
I've been told.
J

Third pic a defo female trust me,,,,it just looks like all my fem's....

I was starting to lean towards the albino being a female. The body is a totally diferent colour to the others.But it does hav the red triangle on the head.
No bristles down the middle of the head either.Thanks again guys.

axle wrote:

I was starting to lean towards the albino being a female. The body is a totally diferent colour to the others.But it does hav the red triangle on the head.
No bristles down the middle of the head either.Thanks again guys.

its a female mate trust me,,,,,,,,,,,,

I managed to take some more pics of my fish including a couple of my other peppermint which I am hoping is a female now that you guys hav confirmed that the one in my last pics is a male. So here goes see what ya reckon.[img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][img][IMG]
And below is a better one of my male.
[img][/img]

Id say the top 3 pics are female and the last one a defo male...
I havent kept pep's before but im pretty sure on it...
How old is the plec in the top 3 pic's??

Thanks Curby. She is the same age as the male(about 2.5 years) and a bit under10cm long. Hey I noticed your name on the plecomadness forums. I also joined this site a couple of days ago. If ya have a look at the recent pics posted on there someone has a pic of there fish which is half albino and half common. Check it out.
Thanks again for your advice.

axle wrote:

Thanks Curby. She is the same age as the male(about 2.5 years) and a bit under10cm long. Hey I noticed your name on the plecomadness forums. I also joined this site a couple of days ago. If ya have a look at the recent pics posted on there someone has a pic of there fish which is half albino and half common. Check it out.
Thanks again for your advice.

got to be a female then mate she is fully mature...

Can u post a link to that thread on plecomadness i would love to see that bn..

I wish I knew how to do that mate but Im not the best on the computer so ill just tell ya where to look.
Its in the pleco madness forum in the photo gallery . The post is called Albino long fin breeding pair and some angels.Hope this does the trick. If not Ill try send a link when I have a bit more time.

High axle ,I'd be confident in saying that you've got a pair of pepps and first few
pix are of a female. Hopefully Tadj gets a look at this thread, He'll probally
be able to give you a concrete answer.
:[IMG]http://i4 J

yes i believe you have a pear there mate goo luck looks lovely

i would say male and female peppermints and defo female albino my female gets the red at the back of the head just before she goes gravid mate when she goes like this i know thiers going to be another clutch of eggs within the week