Sexing Hypancistrus zebra

Haavard Stoere · Post by **Haavard Stoere** » 24 Jul 2006, 00:08

Hi

I have 8 specimens and I would like to put together a spawninggroup of one male and 1-2 females for a specially furnished 73liter tank.

Is it possible to sex the fish from these pictures?

89 mm fish

70 mm fish

72 mm fish

71 mm fish

67 mm fish

59 mm fish

60 mm fish

50 mm fish

Candice · Post by **Candice** » 24 Jul 2006, 05:25

I'm not sure, but AWESOME pictures!!!

Haavard Stoere · Post by **Haavard Stoere** » 24 Jul 2006, 21:12

Thank you

Not the most romantic setting for photography with the millimeter paper and dull plastic.

I have previosly seen pictures of Loricaridae genitals, but I can not remember where. Maybe it was here at PlanetCatfish, but i can not find it again.

The 89mm fish is a definite male. It has long spines coming from the gill area. The front fins are very straight.

The 70mm and 71mm looks similar to the 89mm fish.

The 72mm fish have slightly more rounded front fins, but is also very similar to the above.

The 67 mm, 59 mm and the 60mm fish are maybee more feminin in shape. The 50mm is not healthy and will never become a nice fish. Its a 2 year old dwarf.

I would like to take more sideview pictures of the headregions of all the fish, but I dont want to stress them further at the moment.

Everyone are free to speculate

All opinions are appreciated

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 24 Jul 2006, 21:42

Haavard Stoere wrote:I have previosly seen pictures of Loricaridae genitals, but I can not remember where. Maybe it was here at PlanetCatfish, but i can not find it again.

You didn't look very hard

http://planetcatfish.com/catelog/captio ... ch=genital

or

Long Google URL here

Jools

Haavard Stoere · Post by **Haavard Stoere** » 24 Jul 2006, 22:12

Thank you Jools

Nice pictures there, but I dont unerstand exactly what to look for in the shapes of the genitals.

Maybe the overall shape of the fish and spines are more usefull to determine sex? This is difficult for me

sojapat · Post by **sojapat** » 24 Jul 2006, 22:29

Looks like fish 1+4 are male ..

As you can see by the bigger square head on the fellas..
You might not have to look underneath if they are big enough?
What source did you get them from .?
Are 2 showing deformities??
Did you buy from several places or are they related??
B careful not to inbreed ..

Post by **Janne** » 25 Jul 2006, 05:31

but I dont unerstand exactly what to look for in the shapes of the genitals.

At Hypancistrus species the male have a rounded genital papilla like he has in your first pic and females have an elongated like she have on your second pic.

Janne

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 25 Jul 2006, 09:38

Are the pictures above larger pictures scaled down? If so, I could do with adding these to the cat-elog (it would also allow them to be linked into a FAQ entry) as we get asked this question quite a bit.

Jools

Zebrapl3co · Post by **Zebrapl3co** » 25 Jul 2006, 14:58

Wow, er

... anyway, I don't know how you manage to take these pictures but they are pretty clear shots.
If I was to look at the genital pics, I'd say:
89 mm fish - male
70 mm fish - female
72 mm fish - female
71 mm fish - male
67 mm fish - female
59 mm fish - don't know
60 mm fish - male
50 mm fish - dont' know

However, if it was based on the way they look, I'd say:
89 mm fish - male
70 mm fish - female
72 mm fish - female
71 mm fish - male
67 mm fish - female
59 mm fish - female
60 mm fish - female
50 mm fish - male

Ofcourse I could be dead wrong. But the first 5 should be old enough to start breeding within a year of not already. Do you know how old are they?
Are they WC or F1?
You might want to fatten them up a bit. Otherwise, the female will only laid around 7-8 eggs instead of the 14 -17 eggs.

Haavard Stoere · Post by **Haavard Stoere** » 25 Jul 2006, 22:04

sojapat wrote:What source did you get them from .?
Are 2 showing deformities??
Did you buy from several places or are they related??
B careful not to inbreed ..

Nr 1-4 are supposed to be wild cought if the information is correct. I cannot be certain of that, but i believe it is true.

Nr 5-8 are locally bred in the Stavanger area of Norway. They are F1/F2 from the same breeding group. Some of these 4 may be siblings. These 4 fish are almost 2 years old.

Nr 6. have crooced front fins. Nr 8 died yesterday. Everything was wrong with that fish.

Haavard Stoere · Post by **Haavard Stoere** » 25 Jul 2006, 22:06

Janne wrote:
but I dont unerstand exactly what to look for in the shapes of the genitals.
At Hypancistrus species the male have a rounded genital papilla like he has in your first pic and females have an elongated like she have on your second pic.

Janne

That is good news, Janne:)

I will definetely have to join the GOC:)

Haavard Stoere · Post by **Haavard Stoere** » 25 Jul 2006, 22:08

Jools wrote:Are the pictures above larger pictures scaled down? If so, I could do with adding these to the cat-elog (it would also allow them to be linked into a FAQ entry) as we get asked this question quite a bit.

Jools

The original files are huge, and I have therefore compressed them to a suitable size.

I would be glad if you can use them in the FAQ.

Haavard Stoere · Post by **Haavard Stoere** » 25 Jul 2006, 22:13

Zebrapl3co wrote:Ofcourse I could be dead wrong. But the first 5 should be old enough to start breeding within a year of not already. Do you know how old are they?
Are they WC or F1?
You might want to fatten them up a bit. Otherwise, the female will only laid around 7-8 eggs instead of the 14 -17 eggs.

Fantastic:) Maybe I should set ut 2 breeding tanks?

Thank you all for sharing:) You have all been very helpful.

Thanks:)

Haavard Stoere · Post by **Haavard Stoere** » 26 Aug 2007, 22:10

Your replies in this thread made me quite sure I had the fish I needed for my own little breeding attempt. All the fish exept the heavily deformed one in the last picture put on a lot of weight the following months, and I have at least two breeding pairs in my 312 liter tank.

It is strange to see these old pictures. The fish are in a lot better shape today.

Thanks

Sexing Hypancistrus zebra

Sexing Hypancistrus zebra

Sexing from above ..Easy..

Re: Sexing from above ..Easy..