# Guppy gender confusion.



## andy182 (Jun 12, 2010)

So I have been raising some guppy fry and had them all separated by gender into my 2 tanks. I did alot of research and read alot on these forums about them and how to tell the difference. I had a dark grey with a black tail female and a bright orange and white male guppy that had the babies. Now I was looking in my female tank today and noticed one of the girls, who is almost full grown dont know the actual age, has started to have her tail change color. The edges of it are turning orange. She definately has the right kind of fin under her body and a gravid (sp?) spot has gotten quite large and looks other than the tail just like the adult female guppy I have. Now I know this may be a completely dumb question, but because I started out with fish not knowing that I was sold female guppys labled as common male guppys, you may say I am in the pre-beginner stage. I never ment to have fry of any kind. But what can I say, the pet store I went to sucks. So I guess my question is can a female guppy get more color to her as she grows? Or is she really a he? I hope not, I have almost 15 females in that tank, and really dont want any more babies. Thanks for any help or advice in advance.


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

There IS such a thing as a pretty female guppy 
We've had several that had beautiful rainbowy tails, and also ones with orange/black patterning. 
But we've also had a guppy (I swear!) change sex on us. It was practically full grown and looked like a female (had the anal fin) but then we noticed it starting to get pointy. I don't know if it was the natural progression, or if it somehow actually changed its gender. It's not unheard of in fish and amphibians.


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## PuterChickFL (Feb 23, 2010)

yes, there can be colorful females. I am actually starting to see that more. I've also seen some "plain" males. in most fish stores you have a 90% chance of buying a female that's already knocked up. (my female just hand another batch on Friday and it's getting crowded). 

@hXcChic22, I had a platy go thru a "sex change" from female to male. I was told there could be a slight chance of that since he's related closer to swords which are notorious for it. I've never heard of this in guppies.

the only real and true way to gender them is to look for the modified anal fin.


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## Peeps (May 24, 2010)

I have some really pretty females, Some female can be beautiful.


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## Xox-Zip-xoX (Aug 14, 2010)

hXcChic22 said:


> There IS such a thing as a pretty female guppy
> We've had several that had beautiful rainbowy tails, and also ones with orange/black patterning.
> But we've also had a guppy (I swear!) change sex on us. It was practically full grown and looked like a female (had the anal fin) but then we noticed it starting to get pointy. I don't know if it was the natural progression, or if it somehow actually changed its gender. It's not unheard of in fish and amphibians.


I've had the same thing happen to me and thought the same thing, that they were changing gender, But now I'm noticing the same thing with some of my other guppies and am starting to think that it might just take longer for the males to sexualy mature, it'd also explain why fish stores often get males and females in the same tank.


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