Sexing Angelfish

[Ashlyn]

Hey everyone! I've read some articles online but none have made sense, lets hope I can figure this out. I'm not trying to breed my angelfish, rather just curious the sex of them. How do you sex angelfish? Are they even old enough to sex yet? Thankyou in advance!

Here's a little backstory about my angelfish, I have five of them currently, the one in the third picture is the boss. They all get along great, sharing the food. The other black and white one is much smaller then the rest of the angelfish. At first we were concerned it wasn't getting enough to eat but after a close observation at feeding time we have found that they all are pigs. Lol. 

[HH Morant]

Sexing angels is difficult when they are young, and not so easy even as they mature.

 The gold angel below is a female. I am sure because I have seen her laying eggs.

The other one is a male - a pearl-scale platinum.  You can tell by the nuchal hump above his eye.

[Ashlyn]

Thankyou, I'm thinking the angel in the last picture is a female as it has a shallow tubes. I've had the angelfish for 3 months now so they are still young. I'll be paying close attention to them over the next few weeks as they age.

[Struggle]

I have to catch them in the act because I’m horrible at guessing but below are examples of the different sexes that I have.

 

[anewbie]

As others said they can be difficult but i'm leaning torwards a bunch of male with that last one likely a female (the koi); you had one other i thought might be a female but guesses are just guesses until they are mature enough to start breeding. As a general rule females are smaller and males have humps but there are so many exceptions to these general rules it become a crap shoot.

[HH Morant]

Wow, @Struggle, those are some beautiful fish. Where did you get them?

[Angila Smith]

I was going to buy the one (female). But since everyone says they are difficult to differentiate while young. And the older one are really expensive. What should I learn about them before buying. Because sooner or later I'm going to buy. any suggestion for me?

Merci :  mlifeinsider

Edited December 30, 2021 by Angila Smith

[Struggle]

On 12/30/2021 at 1:01 AM, Angila Smith said:

I was going to buy the one (female). But since everyone says they are difficult to differentiate while young. And the older one are really expensive. What should I learn about them before buying. Because sooner or later I'm going to buy. any suggestion for me?

Merci :  mlifeinsider

Hi Angila,

When I’m looking for a pair of fish that I can’t be sexed when juveniles  I’ll either buy 6 or more juveniles and grow them out or buy a mature pair. Once the juveniles have grown out and paired off I’ll move the pair(s) to their own tank or remove the non-paired fish and take them to a fish store for credit or sale back.