If your fish are wild-caught and don't display domestic cacatuoides traits, any fish which displays male features can be confirmed, but fish which don't develop any male features could be females or sneaker males.
Male features on cacatuoides:
- tail begins to square off and the dorsal and ventral rays/membranes extend out, forming a lyre
- lower jaw enlarges (to get an idea what this looks like, look at old male cacatuoides)
- leading spine of ventral fin forms long extension
- ventral and anal fin and maybe tail fin develop lavendar/yellow colours
- posterior portions of dorsal and anal fin more acutely angled, with membranes extending and tapering to a point (vs females often show a more "squarish" shape on the ends of both these fins, with no long extension)
- dorsal and tail fin show colour (very variable even in wild cacatuoides, maybe orange spotting on a dark blue base, or just iridescent sky-blue sheen)
Cacatuoides that have been kept in the hobby for many generations are harder to sex as females tend to develop typical "male" features.
Six months - your fish should be sexually mature. If they have had good food and water they will be small adults now. Of course small males will stay as sneakers, but you should have some confirmed male fish easily visible, I think. It's differentiating the females from the sneaker males that is hard. The only clue I know will be to look at the general body shape - the female has a more swollen abdomen if she's full of eggs, and the head shape is subtly different - but still very iffy to judge.
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