apistogramma cacatuoides

[Tom G]

I have a 20 gallon tall well planted tank. Lots of driftwood too. There's 9 cardinal tetras, and one female (I think) full grown apistogramma cacatuoides. She's a longtime widow from another tank, actually. I want to 2 more juvenile apistogramma cacatuoides that are hopefully male and female. Two questions... How I determine the sex of the juvenile apistos? And, will the adult leave the juveniles alone, or likely to bully them? Don't want to drop $50 just to watch the youngsters get pushed around. Thanks all!

See pic. Growing out new plants, and waiting for driftwood mold to run it's course too.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Tom G

[Andy's Fish Den]

Generally speaking, it is easy to tell male and female cacatuoides are easy to tell apart, the male will have brightly colored fins, and females don't and are yellow in color. If you go to a good LFS, they should be able to pick out a pair for you. Since the one you have is a female you should be ok with it not bothering the new pair, but it never hurts to be ready to separate fish if any bullying would start up. 

[Tom G]

Does this look like a male or female?

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 1/7/2023 at 1:16 PM, Tom G said:

Does this look like a male or female?

It's been a while, so one way or the other you probably came up with an answer, but I'd say that based on the "spiky-ness" of the dorsal fin that that's a young male. Here are my two adults:

Female (guarding fry):

Male: