Sexing Electric Yellows

[superbad0417]

hey guys i have 6 young electric yellows and im wondering how old they have to be and how you can tell the sex of them ???

[Simonauv]

How young? How big are they? I've only ever vent sexed them before. They need to be at least ALMOST adult to do this. To vent sex them, to put it REALLY simply and crudely, catch them in a net and use the net as a cradle to keep them moist. Have a good light nearby. Flip them over so you can see the two vent openings down near the anal fin. If they are both the same size they are males. If one is significantly bigger than the other it is a female. Should take you no more than 10-20 seconds to check.

That's the crude explanation. I'll post some old pics of mine that show what I mean.

EDIT: Here's the pics. Fish are 'teenage' oscars:

Male

Female

Looks similar for electric yellows and most other fish. The less crude answer is that the vent nearest the anal fin is the genital opening. In females it is larger than the males becuase the ovipositor descends through it to lay eggs. The ovipoisitor is sometimes referred to as the egg tube. Males descend a similar but smaller structure through which sperm is shed.

That completes your fishy porn lesson for the day

Edited April 22, 2010 by Simonauv

[Wolfy]

Looking at the E. Yellows in our grow out tank, at about 4-5cm the males start to develop quite distinctly black edges to their pelvic and anal fins. That could have more to do with their parentage than anything else, but the fry we have fairly easy to identify.

[rosco]

The ones with the mouthfuls are girls . that is the best way to sex them. I have all sorts of yellows come through including girls with dark pelvic and anal fins as wolfy mentioned it depends on the parentage. One good way is to watch them eat. If you are feeding pellets food the ones with extended buical cavity are most likely girls. To get my colony I grew up 40 fish and removed the ones that got mouthfuls into a separate tank (providing she had good colouration off course) And just put a probable male in that tank to keep the breeding going. But not everyone has heaps of tanks and time to do this.

cheers

rosco

[superbad0417]

i have now obtained another 10 electric yellows around the 10cm mark, would vent sexing them be the most accurate way to sex them ??

[mathobes]

Yep, a little while ago when I wanted a way to sex them without venting them I found venting was the only accurate way. There are plenty of myths like, pelvic fins are darker and the males have a stripe through the eye but that's all just parentage. But the least stressful approach for the fish as Rosco said is to put the females with mouthfuls in a seperate tank until you have enough females, then add the probable male.

Edited May 20, 2010 by mathobes

[dobbin4]

I've never seen a male without dark pelvic fins unless they are a shocking specimen.But seen plenty of females with dark fins as well.

One of the hardest fish to sex without venting them.Rosco's way is right. Be intresting to see Wolfy how many of your distinctly dark edged pelvic & anal fin fish turn out to be female.4/5cm these guys breed.

I got some off Lee Miller years ago & even as we tried to pick female's from 50 + yellows, my 12 I ended up with 4 males ?

I spotted 2 holding at our local pet shop and picked them up for $11 each only 5/6cm & only 12 fry from the 2, but f for sure.

Edited May 20, 2010 by dobbin4

[superbad0417]

no worries cheers for that i will try and sex them in the next few days and get back to you with an outcome ...

[Link2Hell]

the best thing about EY's other than the colour on good specimens

is you can run a male heavy breeding group when you have a large

number of fish and with 16 they will still be productive

have fun learning the art of vent sexing

Chris