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boesemani rainbowfish male or female ID

18K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  szuch31 
#1 ·
I have 3 boesemani rainbowfish. Each in 1 picture.
I'd like to know which one is male or female so i could buy 3 more to have 3 pairs. Please help me identify them.

Thanks
 

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#3 ·
Thank you Seattle_Aquarist,

The 1st and the 3rd one is the new one i just purchase 2 weeks ago, and it just go to the main tank for 2 days, the 2nd was in the tank for 1 year already and it got big.

The 1st (left bottom), i still feel it is a male since it is young.i maybe wrong though
The 2nd, the big one, are you sure it is a male? It is not that bright and does not have blue on the front half of it body.

Thanks
 

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#4 ·
Hi shonick,

So I just went into the other room and spent 20 minutes staring at my 75 gallon with about 20 of the M. boesemani 'Lake Aytinjo' adults in it.
The first one still looks like a female, the reason I say this is the body shape. Don't be fooled by the color in the posterior of the fish, females will have orange there sometimes as well.
The second one still looks like a male, maybe not the best color but the thicker body and flowing finnage certainly indicates male.
The third one looks like a mail with the strong orange coloration in the posterior, obviously younger the body isn't as thick and the finnage hasn't filled out.
-Roy

75 gallon with M. boesemani 'Lake Aytinjo'
 
#6 ·
I have to agree here about that 2nd one not being a bosemani. My LFS sell a few that look similar to that which they call "ornate rainbows". Bosemani dont tend to get that "spotting" of colors on the fins like that.

I'm pretty sure bosemanis are quite easy to sex. On males the blue/orange stripe is vertical and on females its horizontal.
 
#12 ·
How to sex many (not all) rainbows:
Male:
Look at the fish head first, and look at the band from dorsal fin to nose. The male can change this color from the same color as the body of the fish to a cream-yellow band. They do this when they are competing for females.
Look at the fish from the side. Males develop a significant hump over the shoulder/neck, and often below. This makes the head look small and pointy. The second pic in the initial thread shows the beginning of this development. Some species grow a more obvious hump than others.
In most species the males will be more colorful, but some species are less colorful, so that a fish that is not very colorful might be a male of one of these less colorful species. As noted above, a hybrid may take on some of the colors of both parents, and look like a less colorful version or be hard to ID to species.
Some species males have longer fins.

Female:
No colored band from dorsal to nose.
Does not develop the hump over or under the shoulder area.
Usually less colorful than the male.

Note that Rainbows take longer to develop than many other fish, so what looks like a less colorful, perhaps female fish may actually turn out to be a really nice one, once he matures enough to color up well.
 
#14 ·
I have 3 boesemani rainbowfish. Each in 1 picture.
I'd like to know which one is male or female so i could buy 3 more to have 3 pairs. Please help me identify them.

Thanks
Hello! I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet.... But I do see 2 Bosemani rainbowfish in the picture. However; The fish in the first picture, he's definitely a male AUSTRALIAN rainbowfish. Not a BOESEMANI rainbowfish. But to me, it looks like you have all males. Hopefully this helps, if you have not figured it out already!
 
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