We all know how difficult it is to identify the sex of these fish, so please post a picture in here and we'll try to help you (or at least give an educated guess!).
Hi guys some one told me off a way off sexing these fish today, but i cant see it being true i will try to describe the way he told me here go's
he said that if the second stripe down from the top on the SIDE off the fish(from head to tail) if this joins with the stripe that goes across the head then this is a male and if it doesnt meet and that there is a small gap then it would be a female he said that this can only be done with adult fish because the males have a small gap also when young?
I also heard something similar from one of the LFSs I frequent, again this was to do with colour patterning. Apparently the leading ray of the pectoral fin is black in mature males and white in females. I immediately dismissed this as rubbish. Has anyone heard this one?
I'd like to introduce you first to Bubba, my male zebra that is currently sitting on his 3rd spawn. He blows the hell out of the last of these methods...
And also Swish, who nukes the first one She was the first female he spawned with.
It's all about the shape of the fins, maturity, the size of the head in comparison to the torso and how they act, IMO. I found I was much closer on my guesses at sexing than many people that had had success with them in the past, and I think most of that is due to actually being able to watch the fish and how they behaved.
Spectacular speciments! It looks like your female has smaller ventrals than the male? I can see that on my females as well, but it still might be just one of several things to look at to determine the gender.
What a fantastic looking pair of zebras. You can quite clearly see the sexual differences between the two, definately explodes both of the pattern theories. It is indeed all in the shape of the fins.
You also mentioned behavioural differences between the two sexes. What should we be looking for?
The shape and size of their heads is also an indicator, IMO. My females don't use caves, as a rule, and definitely won't stay in them for more than a day or two, at any point. The males always stay in them, once they've found one they like. One of my females is almost as big as my male, but she's not the one he spawned with, at least the first time, I'm not sure about the subsequent times. My fish are so chubby that it's actually not easy to tell after they've spawned just which one did it!
I've aslo noticed similar terretorial behaviour in my zebras, their current home doesn't have any caves but the new one will. At the moment there are about 4 zebras that have definate spots picked out in the tank and will not tolerate any intruders, they will tail flap and side smack other zebras that come too close. The rest of the zebras are not fussed as to where they are and will regulary move home.
She was the first female he spawned with.
You can quite clearly see the sexual differences between the two, definately explodes both of the pattern theories. It is indeed all in the shape of the fins. 