Macmasteri sexing

[Brewer Zack]

Hi all. Want to help me out sexing my new "red-necks"
First one is my large male at close to 3 inches
Second two photos are of the fish I'm most unsure of. About 2 inches.
Photo 4 is presumably a male, about 2 inches
And lastly presumably a female at about 1.75 inches
Have had them for a bit over a week now.

 

[ADC Nederland]

This is probably a male. He looks a bit unhealthy, I would seperate him and nurture him back to health because I think he's getting beaten up by the dominant male.

The first photo is the dominant male and the other photos are of the female. Because it's a heavily colored bred female it's sometimes hard to see because juvinile males can look a lot like females... but in this case I think it's a female.

 

[Mrs. Susie]

I'm newish to A. macmasteri too but no one else replied yet so here's my two cents. I did look at a lot of photos and exchange messages with people on some apistogramma facebook forums when I was trying to sex mine. I did get told that females have black pectorals (on mine they didn't show up till she was more mature - they were completely colorless for a long time. But, I don't know if that's always true for sure. Secondly that females can get pretty yellow when in breeding colors but won't have the red on the tail fin. I agree the 2nd 2 photos could be female or just an immature male but, like I say I'm not an expert yet.
The 2nd to last that looks stressed does look male for sure and the last looks female.
Are they all together in a tank and how do they interact?
Before mine were mature the bigger (turned out to be male) chased badly the female who was younger and smaller but when I put them back together a couple months later they immediately began 'courting' behavior so it was clear. Have you seen any 'shimmy shammy dance' by the male towards any of them?
I'm struck by the lack of black along the sides of that first Male pictured. And no diagonal stripe across the eye. I guess there are so many tank bred variations. But there are also apparently a lot of mis-identified fish that are of completely different species and just get mixed in by the wholesaler or dealer. (I didn't get a clear idea from the person I bought mine from whether they were wild or locally bred) Pics of mine on my introduction page if you want to compare at all.

 

[Mrs. Susie]

I got a lot of help sexing and identifying my fishes from the Norwegian Apistogramma group on Facebook. Also my mention of black pectoral fins: my female doesn't have them either in my own recent photos (and yet their mating behavior shows that she is). I bet /agree with you that yellow 2nd 2 photos is female.

 

[fart]

What with the blue spots on the gill cover? I havent seen a female Apistogramma macmasteri with blue spots on the gill cover before?
All males is my guess.

 

[Brewer Zack]

After giving them another week, ADC was correct in all regards. The 2nd one that was the biggest ? for me is most definitely a female. A day or two after posting, she became very territorial and often hiding in her clay pot. And today I even spotted a dozen or so fry! I've only had these guys for less than three weeks! The sub-dominate male is looking a lot better at this point, hopefully due to the extra hiding places I've added.
Thanks all!

 

[ADC Nederland]

Nice to hear they are doing good !

 

[Mrs. Susie]

And mine spawned too! Shortly after I got home from work the Mrs. came out of hiding with these little guys. The last picture is how Papa looks now in the 'blackwater' tank. She only had them out for a little while but I saw them browsing on the leaves and wood plus I put some microworms in there that I had ready. Very exciting. I've never bred any egglayers before, only guppies.