Help distinquishing males - Rusties, Saulosi and Mainganos

[scifisarah]

I am hoping to rehome my extra males as soon as I am able to tell them apart. I've never kept these particular species before so am hoping for guidance. I would take photos, but as soon as they see me, they freak out because they think it is time to eat and I can't get a good shot.

Rusties (5): There is one large, two medium and two small sized. The large one I am quite sure is a male by his behavior, and he has a brighter orange around his edges than the others. The 2 medium sized ones are always fighting/circling with each other and have rubbed noses. They swim away from, rather than fight the large one. The two smaller Rusties don't really fight with anyone, and don't have rubbed noses. The big Rusty doesn't seem to bother them as much as the two medium sized fish. Do you think the two medium sized fish are males, and the two smaller ones females?

Mainganos (7): They are all basically the same size. Four of them get darker faces and bellies and the other three always seem to stay blue on the bottom. Does this mean the four darker ones are all males?

Ps. Saulosi (7): These are the ones that really have me stumped. One of them is blue except the tail so I imagine definitely a male. The other six remain primarily yellow and all have some black/grey towards the front of their dorsal fin, a couple of them more than others. Some of them have black/grey on their pelvic fins and others have totally yellow pelvic fins. All of them seem to have very faint bars but it is difficult to make out on two or three of them. The bars on the others also seem to come and go depending on their mood. Any ideas, or do I just need to wait longer?

[Regalblue]

Once the Saulosi start to show blue in their face you'll know it's a male.

Rustys & Maingano....  I'd just get a group of 12 of each species.  But, the females will have a dull coloration compared to males.
 The way I used to weed out males is to set up another tank & pull the males as they start to show dominance & male coloration.  Once you have no more coloring up, keep the ones you want & trade/sell the rest.

[scifisarah]

Once the Saulosi start to show blue in their face you'll know it's a male.

Rustys & Maingano....  I'd just get a group of 12 of each species.  But, the females will have a dull coloration compared to males.
 The way I used to weed out males is to set up another tank & pull the males as they start to show dominance & male coloration.  Once you have no more coloring up, keep the ones you want & trade/sell the rest.

So the other male saulosi will still get blue faces with the dominant male colored up, if I wait long enough? Probably if I set up another tank, it will be a 10 gallon quarantine/hospital tank so I'm not sure how many crabby males I will want to put in that. I suppose as long as it isn't for very long until I sell them a few would be okay. The ill chicken that has been living in my basement the past month is gone, for unfortunate reasons, so I guess I have room for another tank.  The GVAC auction is coming up March 23rd, so maybe I will try to weed out a few males for that and pick up more possible females.

[Maize-N-Blue-D]

Chicken soup or Fried Chicken ?             

[scifisarah]

Chicken soup or Fried Chicken ?             

Nah, she was a black silkie chicken and had honestly wasted away to nothing. I gave her three antibiotic injections, and I had trouble finding any sort of breast muscle to inject into. Everyone else is happy and healthy at least - I think she was "defective" somehow rather than just sick.

[Dan K]

Once the Saulosi start to show blue in their face you'll know it's a male.

Rustys & Maingano....  I'd just get a group of 12 of each species.  But, the females will have a dull coloration compared to males.
 The way I used to weed out males is to set up another tank & pull the males as they start to show dominance & male coloration.  Once you have no more coloring up, keep the ones you want & trade/sell the rest.

So the other male saulosi will still get blue faces with the dominant male colored up, if I wait long enough? Probably if I set up another tank, it will be a 10 gallon quarantine/hospital tank so I'm not sure how many crabby males I will want to put in that. I suppose as long as it isn't for very long until I sell them a few would be okay. The ill chicken that has been living in my basement the past month is gone, for unfortunate reasons, so I guess I have room for another tank.  The GVAC auction is coming up March 23rd, so maybe I will try to weed out a few males for that and pick up more possible females.

He is saying pull the obvious male out and put him in another tank so the next male in line will begin to color up. Then pull him etc. until no more color up and what you have left will likely be females. Then choose which male you want to keep with your females.

[four_by_ken]

Once the Saulosi start to show blue in their face you'll know it's a male.

Rustys & Maingano....  I'd just get a group of 12 of each species.  But, the females will have a dull coloration compared to males.
 The way I used to weed out males is to set up another tank & pull the males as they start to show dominance & male coloration.  Once you have no more coloring up, keep the ones you want & trade/sell the rest.

So the other male saulosi will still get blue faces with the dominant male colored up, if I wait long enough? Probably if I set up another tank, it will be a 10 gallon quarantine/hospital tank so I'm not sure how many crabby males I will want to put in that. I suppose as long as it isn't for very long until I sell them a few would be okay. The ill chicken that has been living in my basement the past month is gone, for unfortunate reasons, so I guess I have room for another tank.  The GVAC auction is coming up March 23rd, so maybe I will try to weed out a few males for that and pick up more possible females.

He is saying pull the obvious male out and put him in another tank so the next male in line will begin to color up. Then pull him etc. until no more color up and what you have left will likely be females. Then choose which male you want to keep with your females.

But, I think the question then becomes... how many males can you take out of THE tank and put into the 10 gallon temp tank before you have aggression issues.

[Ron]

But, I think the question then becomes... how many males can you take out of THE tank and put into the 10 gallon temp tank before you have aggression issues.

But then the question becomes why only 1 temp tank? And why only 10 gallons?   

[four_by_ken]

All you guys and instigating more tanks.   


I was supposed to have one simple tank in the living room... now I am up to 7, with the 8th almost ready to be filled.

[scifisarah]

Yes, I got what he was saying about removing the males one at a time. I am just hoping not to do that, because I really don't have the space or time for another large tank and they would have to go into a 10 gallon like I said.  About half of our small basement is taken up with my Etsy business. 500+ wool sweaters take up quite a chunk of area, I will tell you. I also have to divide up my time between a bunch of other hobbies, other than the fish, which I do adore, but aren't my only interest. Tonight for instance, I need to wash a chicken which takes a lot more time than a water change unfortunately.  I may be tempted to do one more tank in my living room, but if so, it would be a native stream tank since I just received my approved scientific collector's permit from the DNR (woohoo!). I need to make sure I can handle my current tanks, business, children, chickens, gardens and last but not least husband before I take that one on regrettably.

[Dan K]

Yeah, I hear ya! I have way more projects I want to try than tank room to try them in too 

Sometimes there is no easy answer, you don't often find breeding adults available in good ratios.

[scifisarah]

I imagine it might be obvious to one of you which are males at this point since I am so new to catching behavior cues. Like will the females circle each other with tense bodies and do the little shaking thing? I've gotten good enough with chickens to know which are going to be roosters by how they act on the first day from hatching, so I know it will just take time to get used to the fish. Reminds me of having my ethogram assignment in college lol

[Ron]

I imagine it might be obvious to one of you which are males at this point since I am so new to catching behavior cues. Like will the females circle each other with tense bodies and do the little shaking thing?

The females won't do that nearly as much as males would.

FWIW, in 4'+ length tanks I've typically tried to keep 2 males rather than just a single. Then you have insurance in case something unfortunate happens to the male. I have a beautiful trio of albino taiwan reef and once they reached breeding size the male managed to jump ship one day. I eventually sold the females off after months of trying to find a nice replacement male. 

The second male also takes some attention from the dominant male away from the females in the tank. I've found that keeping 2 males, they tend to split the tank if the rockwork breaks up the tank into territories well enough. The times I've tried above 2, the extra males typically can't find a space to call their own. Having more than 1 male, their mouths will get rubbed up sometimes, but as long as there's no fungus and the less dominant one decides he's done and can't get away, it's usually not an issue.