Megalechis thoracata maturity

[kabaltah]

Hello, I have 6 Megalechis thoracata, all 3" long. I noticed non of them have thicker or orange pectoral fins. Is that mean all of them are females or if there are males, do they need more time to have bigger-orange pectoral fins?

[Bas Pels]

It was a long time back, but mine got their orange fins around 10 cm (4 inches). that was, all of them, I had 3 males

[kabaltah]

Thanks for reply, so that means I shall wait for them to reach 4". I was planning to order another 6 of them to get some males. But I still have a chance of some of mines to be males.

[Carp37]

I wasn't sure of my Callichthys male until he reached about 4", but I bought 6 more M. thoracata at our fish auction on Monday at about 2", and one is definitely showing the elongated, thickened pectoral fins so I'm 99.5% sure he's a male; I'm not sure how old he is though- maybe it's more to do with age than size? Despite having had about 7 of these before I've never had a male, although a colleague got something like 9 out of 10 males from juveniles he bought!