Is this a male or female?

I bought what I thought were 3 females yesterday to give a bit of colour to my species tank and when I got home, instead of the red I'd asked for she'd put a blue/red in the bag [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] and I'm sure this is a male, what do you think?

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Sorry about the quality of the pic, but you can see its shape. I saw it flare a couple of times, but when I put it in a jar to study it better, I'm sure it showed stress stripes, It also looks as if it's got an ovipositor but I've read that some male Plakats have what looks like one. Also its ventrals are a bit short for a male, I'm really confused on this one and would appreciate your help [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Also it's already taken a lump out of the caudal of the sweet little Cambodian I got which is more like a male thing, I know females nip each other to sort out the hierarchy, but they don't normally take lumps out of each other do they [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I left them altogether last night but this morning it was chasing the pale turquoise one and she was really stressed so I took it out.

Yes it does look male to me even though the flare is pretty small.

it looks like a male hmpk

its probably a male straight plakat rather than Halfmoon plakat I agree with daz the flare is quite small but male alarm bells are ringing in my head!

Thanks for that, I'll take him back as soon as I can, in the meantime I'm going to have to keep him in an unfiltered 10 litre tank but have a heater in there to keep him warm, shame I can't keep him he's rather pretty and I like the point of his anal fin which the females don't seem to have

Yeah looks like a boy to me, shame coz he's pretty!

-Rezz

He is isn't he, He's now in the 10 litre with a heater and plant and my cousin will be taking him home with him when he visits next week [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I've shown him a mirror and he's been flaring away at it [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I've split the 2 females before one becomes a bully and the other the bullied, one's in with my species fish and the other in with the shoals of Boraras so they should be fine [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

good work Ashton! sounds like your all sorted

And just to prove we were all right, he's built the biggest bubble nest for me this morning [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] As he's not in a filtered tank, I'm doing 50% water changes daily so I'm afraid the bubble nest disappeared before I'd thought of taking a pic. I'll remember tomorrow though [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

He's very nice :D

This is Diesel who came in as a female. He grew into this.
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Both really pretty and visually stunning! shame if you have to get rid of him hon x

Yeh, I'd have liked to have kept him, but already have 2 males in their own tanks. I couldn't have taken him back to have him shoved in with the females again and I know my cousin will take care of him [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Pretty =) I'd love a PK boy like that - stunning colours.