L046 Zebras ( new ones)

[Sandstone]

Since you thought my last 3 where all males, here is my new ones I got yesterday.. a little stress out yet from the Air Plane ride, MALES/FAMALES..what do you think??

[MatsP]

Hard to say for sure, but I suspect you have another bunch of males - how large are they?

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Mats

[jac]

It is very difficult to see on your pictures. But I think I've spotted one female but that's not for sure...
A sharp/in focus picture straight from above with lots of light would be more helpfull. How big are they?

[Sandstone]

Hi, they are only 2 to 2 1/2 in. alot smaller then the 1st 3 males I got. About 1/2 there size.

[MatsP]

I'd say it's unlikely that you have any females in this group either - by all means fatten them up and see what happens, but I'd not hold any great hopes (sorry to be bearer of bad news, don't shoot the messenger, etc).

I would try to buy determined females (with photographic evidence and "money back guarantee" that the fish YOU GET is the actual fish in the picture(s) - if the seller can't guarantee that you get THE fish you see the picture of, find another seller - as I said, they are expensive, you should be able to get what you are paying for) - since females are more in demand (and therefore fetch higher price), you can almost guess that if they are not sexed, they are probably male. These fish are expensive enough that you don't want to take chances.

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Mats

[apistomaster]

I really agree with mat about buying large fish guaranteed to be sexed properly and expect females to be much more xpensive.
I would not be confident of accurately sexing 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 inch fish, but I do think at 2-1/2 inches one can become fairly accurate providing they are in peak condition and you have been able to study their behavior for a month or two. I think at that point they would be about like sexing health adult wild Discus about 5 inches in diameter. I am right about 80% of the time but my score is never going to be perfect.
I think breeders selling 2-1/2 inch Zebras are also about that certain of the sexes of their fish and are going to be selling off surplus males hoping not too many females slip through. Breeders only need about 1 male for every 2 or 3 females in their breeding groups.

The choices boil down to:
1. Receiving a guarantee with the breeder if the fish is sold as and paid for at female prices so if it turns out to be a case of mistaken identification at least some agreement to trade for a positively identified female is part of the agreement.
2. Take your time and grow 10 or 12 unsexed fish out yourself. At least the odds are on your side that you will get at least one trio and maybe even more females.
3. buy wild fish that are random unsexed specimens.
4. I think in any case that allows sexing of the fish there will be a double edged premium price structure; a. high price for adult fish+ b. surcharge for a guaranteed female.

Maybe I am too cynical but I think any breeders selling adult fish without any assurance of the sex of the fish is likely to be dumping their excess males. I know I would but I would also price them for less than I would a guaranteed female and be upfront about what I was doing. Many people still only want a single Zebra specimen for their community tank collection for what they are; an amazingly striking looking small pleco .

[MatsP]

Maybe I am too cynical but I think any breeders selling adult fish without any assurance of the sex of the fish is likely to be dumping their excess males. I know I would but I would also price them for less than I would a guaranteed female and be upfront about what I was doing.

This is essentially what I was trying to hint.

Also bear in mind that if there are people setting up larger breeding colonies, they would most likely get a decent number of unwanted males (seeing as they only would need 1 male per 2-3 females, as Larry said). Say you are setting up a set of 20 tanks with 8 fish in each (clearly a commercial activity, but not high-level professional breeding facility). But we have a relatively equal number of males and females, so we want 160 fish, 120 of which are famale, 40 males. Assuming we start with 240 fish, there is now 80 males "spare". What do you think happens to those 80 spare males?

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Mats

[apistomaster]

MatsP wrote:
"What do you think happens to those 80 spare males? "
Blend a few up, then wipe down the kitchen with bleach and buy some test tubes and petri dishes and begin cloning them.
Might take most of them before I succeeded.

[claro]

I see 3 male and 2 female:o)) They are young fisch, but 2 smallest fisch are for me female.

[apistomaster]

To be clear, I do think 2-1/2 inch H. zebra can be sexed to some degree of accuracy but I consider the fish of this size as subadults which makes sexing less certain.
However, your collection is large enough it does seem very unlikely you don't have some trios or pairs.
Best of success with your project as one would be Zebra breeder to another. My 10 are between 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 inches and growing pretty well considering they are Zebras.

[Sandstone]

thanks everyone for your input..I did take the 2 smaller ones and put them in another tank and left the others . Looks like I have 3 females and 5 males.. will see what happens.

[Zebrapl3co]

I do see at least 1 female and 1 male. The others are kind of hard to tell so I won't even bother to give you a percentage. Also, the picture quality is poor making it harder to tell.