Have I picked right

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!).
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Jo's Zebs
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Have I picked right

Post by Jo's Zebs »

A couple of weeks ago I started my second group off with 'Yoshi' 6 years+ adult wild caught male he is by far my prettiest zeb so I thought he was a good start, I have not had chance untill today to catch anymore zebs from the main colony, I have taken another 2 I am pretty sure one is male the other female both around 2.5 - 3" size female around 3 years old I think the male is around 2 years old now wanted to catch 2 females. Just need someone to confirm really please.
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civicr
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zeb

Post by civicr »

yup i think bottom 2 pics are of a female :)
Jo's Zebs
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Post by Jo's Zebs »

Thank you :)
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TwoTankAmin
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Post by TwoTankAmin »

I am horrid at sexing fish. But for what it is worth, I would say the two are opp. sex fish almost for certain. I would tend to agree the top one is male and the bottom fm.

I usually wait to see a dad on eggs to ID mine :P
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Jo's Zebs
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Post by Jo's Zebs »

Cheers for that TTA I think a nice spawn would make it all 100% :wink: just got the 3 zebs in the new group looks like 2 M and 1F will leave it at that for now
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Jamie24
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Post by Jamie24 »

Jo, the first pic does look like a young male and from the second and third pics i would say shes female, she does however, look slightly snubnosed, unless its just the angle? :?

if its not just the pics and she is a slight snub nose, if she does spawn you can see if it is hereditory or an environmental trait...

good luck with them, post a pic of your new setup you are putting them into aswell :wink:




J
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Jo's Zebs
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Post by Jo's Zebs »

Picture of the new setup (old L134 tank) 180L internal filter, external tetratec 1200, UV filter light on right & power head on right for exra flow. 3 caves with bogwood running along the top to create maximum cover.
The female? ?has taken the right hand cave the smaller male has now taken residence on top of the adult males cave under the bogwood so I guess time will tell with these.
A shot of the fry tank attached as well, the alpha is in there in his cave sat on some more eggs :) this is a 125L all standard the fry hide under the big slate ledge in the middle I could sit and watch them all day so cute.
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Jamie24
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Post by Jamie24 »

looking good, what you done with the L134's? they got a new home?

dont worry about the female being in arround the caves, my females hang out in the caves/ arround the caves too and so do other peoples aswell... :wink:




hope they start breeding for you soon, but do you not think a 180L tank might be a little bit large for only 3? i dont know what effect this may have on them breeding?




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Jo's Zebs
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Post by Jo's Zebs »

the 134s went to a new home half rehomed in the old peoples home tank I maintain and stock for them for free, gives the old dears a bit more to look at than 4 walls the other 3 I sold. I dont think 180L is too big my main colony are in a juwel rio 400L they have been breeding well in there for over 4 years the only drawbacks being it is near on impossable to catch fry hence the fry tank I really would'nt want to use anything much smaller as I intend to add to the group in the future no rush though :lol:
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Post by Joby »

Great pics, hope the new colony does well for you :)
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Post by Jo's Zebs »

Thank you hope your new zebs are well as well
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Hi

Post by dave »

Personally I wouldn't breed from that female, unless you know the answer as to whether snubnoses are environmental or genetic.

Take care

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Barbie
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Post by Barbie »

If you search the subject and read the previous threads, it's been shown that a snub nosed female threw all normal fry. That would definitely imply that it's not a directly inheritable characteristic. For it to manifest as often as it does, it would definitely have to be a dominant characteristic, IMO, and obviously is not. I've always maintained it's due to injury. It's nice to see actual evidence bearing out that theory ;).

I definitely wouldn't worry about spawning her, if she was mine. Losing a potential breeding female from such a small gene pool of fish being worked with due to speculation would be a shame. If there were thousands out there actively being spawned it would be one thing, but obviously every zebra is valuable at this point. If two unrelated, perfect fish can throw them, a symptomatic individual should throw a much higher percentage of snubbers, if it's truly a genetic condition (which I still doubt!).

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Post by Jo's Zebs »

I am now in two minds as to remove her and what to do with her next ?option one put her in the fry tank if I put her back in the colony she may well breed in there although she has yet to do so advise from anyone would be great, good or bad its all the same so don't hold back please, I do have other females I can replace her with for the new group given the chance to catch them with out too much disruption at some point.
Dave I am not confident in the answer as to why there are snubnose zebs and would rather not experiment with it either not that brave so now so confused what to do with this female.
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Post by Joby »

Jo's Zebs wrote:Thank you hope your new zebs are well as well
They are doing well and growing nicely. 4 of them occupy the 2 slate caves I have in there and constantly bat eachother with their tails to try and get the cave to themselves :roll: and the other 2 like to hang out in the fluval 2+ filter bracket :? thought I'd lost them when I first moved them into the tank and could only count 4 but found the little devils eventually :lol:

Can't help with the decision on the female but hope you find a solution for her :)
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