Can anyone sex these zebras? Photo attached!

sugarandopium · Post by **sugarandopium** » 04 Jul 2003, 15:47

Bad pic yes. Can any experts sex these?

sugarandopium · Post by **sugarandopium** » 04 Jul 2003, 15:52

I'm thinking/hoping this is two females and a male as two are fat and one is thinner? What do you guys think?

Kostas · Post by **Kostas** » 04 Jul 2003, 16:46

Hi,
The first from the left is for sure male and the second from the left is female.So you have for sure a pair

As for the third,i am not sure.

Post by **Barbie** » 04 Jul 2003, 19:10

I would say the one on the left is female, after looking at its wider, shorter head and the width of its abdomen, along with the more curved pectoral fins. It is noticably wider than the one to the right, although almost exactly the same length. The other two both appear male to me. Close up shots of their heads and finnage would give us a better idea as far as the odontodes of the individual fish though. I'm far from an expert though.

Barbie

ClayT101 · Post by **ClayT101** » 05 Jul 2003, 04:40

How large are they? If they are ~2 1/2 inches or larger, do they have large cheek odontodes?

zebra046 · Post by **zebra046** » 05 Jul 2003, 10:25

opium,
sorry it took me a while to reply from the last post you did, I dont want to make conclusions on which fish are male or female I myself have a hard time telling the sexes of my fish you can how ever compare the fish to the photographs below:

http://eheim-uk.com/planetcatfish/galle ... exing-L046

the last picture is the same male as the first fish above and was taken 11-28-02 his stripes are still visible compared to the recent pic. I have an older photo with the stripes still intact but I have to look for it, any way if you still can figure out your fishes gender you can vent them just like the way you do on cichlids just compare them and if two dont match you have a pair just be carefull not to drop the fish coz they make a squeeky sound, I know it startled me and I drop one so do it on the floor, I will try to take picture of there vent when I can get my wife to help me, coz thoose shots up there took some time for me to get. I do have some of them with a frontal shot but not the fish above. just take a note on the head & nose shape the wiskers and there waist line.

sugarandopium · Post by **sugarandopium** » 05 Jul 2003, 11:32

I don't know how big they are, but the guy's local and claims to have a sh*tload of them, so these arent the only 3 for sale

I'm going to take a look at them after the holiday.

'zebra046' you are amazing with these photos, thank you so much, they will be a big help!!

sugarandopium · Post by **sugarandopium** » 05 Jul 2003, 11:41

zebra046 wrote: just be carefull not to drop the fish coz they make a squeeky sound, I know it startled me and I drop one so do it on the floor,

aww, these fish are amazing!

zebra046 wrote:
I will try to take picture of there vent when I can get my wife to help me, coz thoose shots up there took some time for me to get.

Don't worry about that, unless you really want to do it, I was just asking in hopes that you had taken pics like that. I'll be looking at a bunch of them together, so the photos I have now will be fine. Thanx again

Post by **Barbie** » 05 Jul 2003, 17:24

Those are great pictures zebra046. Thank you for such clear illustrations for people that need help sexing their zebras!

Barbie

ClayT101 · Post by **ClayT101** » 06 Jul 2003, 01:17

zebra046, are you sure that is a female zebra? To me, it looks like a male because of the cheek odontodes. I was under the impression that if large cheek odontodes were present, it was a male. I may be wrong though.

Kostas · Post by **Kostas** » 07 Jul 2003, 08:30

Hi,
I apologies for wrong sexing

I didnt noticed that she had short abdomen because the foto was taken from far above.
Beautifull pictures zebra046.

zebra046 · Post by **zebra046** » 13 Jul 2003, 10:37

sorry if it took me some time to post this picture my aging computer had some problems, I accidently deleted an entire folder full of zebra pics. but manage to get some of this from the recycle bin, is there a way to recover a deleted file from your hard drive about one gig. of pictures.
anyway this picture should make it more accurate to differentiate the male and female fish

this is the same female used in the photograph above she might have a longer wiskers but the odontoides in her pectoral fin are less pronounced than the males, some of the blurry fry pics below is produced by this female it is hard to miss this female due to its crooked stripes.

PhilipAsh · Post by **PhilipAsh** » 14 Jul 2003, 00:05

Zebra046

Does the colouration around the vent also help to tell? Or is it a coincidence the male in this case had small black spots and the female did not?

Many thanks

Phil.

zebra046 · Post by **zebra046** » 14 Jul 2003, 08:12

Phil,
the spot is just coincidental if you randomly check adult size zebras the fish with a wider vent are the females but the males vent tend to enlarge too when a pair is about to spawn I have not tried checking younger fry to see it it is applicable but an average size pleco even the fish that has not spawned will show the difference, you can just use small nets and trap the fish in the fornt glass of the tank to vent them.