View Full Version : Jag male or female? Pic included
oscar andy
12-10-2002, 1:04 AM
I got a prety good shot of my jags bits and peices
can you tell if its a male or a female?
http://pic5.picturetrail.com:80/VOL99/804435/1426563/16834801.jpg
Anton Wernher
12-10-2002, 2:45 AM
I would say female although I usually have to see them spawn :)
Pot a photo of the entire fish. Males generally come to a point. Egg tubes are blunt. That looks like a male....but I need to see the entire fish.
Dobermann
12-10-2002, 8:29 AM
I would say female but without a large degree of certainty without seeing the entire fish....
oscar andy
12-10-2002, 10:30 AM
My guess was also male(because he's more then twice the size of some of the other jags I bought at the same time). But I wanted to make sure he looked like a male down there. If you can't tell in the pic the tube sort of sticks out and then points backwards.
BTW I bought 5 ~1" Jags awhile ago, now this one is about 3.5", one is about 3", and the other 3 are just barly over an inch. I was guessing that the two big ones would be dominant and subdominant males, and the other three would be females. But the two big ones compleatly ignore the other three and always swim side by side. Do you think its posible that the second biggest one is a female?
I'll post a pic tonight, I'm at school right now :D
From the jags I have seen it looks to me like a pointed tube(male) and developig spotting(male) , females and subdominant males seem to keep the large blotches where the alphamale developes spotting. However I have only seen the small spotting on large jags - which means this one may be developing it.
IMHO it is hard to tell the sex of a fish strictly from the size - even if it is from the same hatch.
There will always be runts.
Before the disaster with the icestorm here when I lost almost all my fish , I raised some angels from one batch. I started with 16 and after a few unfortunate deaths I had several pairs. The bigger males were 7" high or so with females about 5" and there was one runt that hung in but never grew much over 2.5" along with one at 3.5".
Some others I have grown from small schools incluce JD, GT, Salvini, firemouths, discus and a few others.(also have a few young jags at present).
The firemouths and JD exhibit a big difference in growth pattern while the others stay relativley close.
My guess would be that it could have something to do with the fishes genetics and possible inbreeding as usually only the strong survive in nature while some weaker individuals are allowed to live and even breed in captivity - however that is a different discussion.
Anton Wernher
12-10-2002, 11:05 AM
told you I was no good at it:)
oscar andy
12-10-2002, 10:44 PM
here are some pics of his whole body
http://pic5.picturetrail.com:80/VOL99/804435/1426563/16870298.jpg
He's the one in the back
http://pic5.picturetrail.com:80/VOL99/804435/1426563/16870289.jpg
http://pic5.picturetrail.com:80/VOL99/804435/1426563/16870282.jpg
As you can see they spend alot of time together.
oscar andy
12-11-2002, 11:34 AM
bump
oscar andy
12-12-2002, 11:47 AM
:(
How big are they again?
The top one seems to have a higher profile while the lower one seems a little more slender , also the top one seems a bit larger(my guess would be top male bottom female, providing you know you have a pair).
But I'm no expert.
AikidoGuy
12-12-2002, 11:57 AM
are they both the same sex possibly????
oscar andy
12-12-2002, 11:59 AM
inxs- there about 3" the top one is a bit larger, and thats what I was thinking, exept there not a defenate pair so they might be the same sex, but I don't they are because they seem to like eachother so much.
Mine are at about that size now and although they seem to have somewhat of a hierechracy there doesn't seem to be too much hostility to imagine that they are near pairing up - though there is definitly one dominant one.
I will try to get pix up soon.
I think it would be a good idea to check with Mojo for what size to start expecting signs of pairing up .
They can pair up relatively small. Generally around four to five inches for the male. 3-4 for the female.
Good looking fish. Enjoy.
oscar andy
12-12-2002, 8:21 PM
Thanks Mo
But do you have an idea if the smaller one is a female or just a subdominate female.
The smaller of the two is a female.
oscar andy
12-13-2002, 12:20 AM
Cool, thats what I was hopeing for. There growing so fast it probably won't be long before I have some fry pics. :D