what is the best way of knowing if your flowerhorn is a male or female?
through the course of time, a lot of techniques have been developed to determining the fish's sex. some do it via the dorsal spot. the black spot on the dorsal fin may indicate that the fish is a female but this is just about 60% accurate. others go for the kok (nuchal hump). if the kok is small, it might be a female. this too is very subjective and inaccurate. others go for body size. females are usually smaller than males but we have to wait til they grow large enough to use this technique. others look at the appearance. if it does not look good, it must be a female - sounds discriminating, right? others do the venting procedure - they look at and examine the vent located between the ventral fin and the tail. the appearance of the vent at the belly of the fish could point to its sex. females have larger vents than males. this too is hard to do in small fish and would need practice and experience to do. also, you need special equiptments to magnify the vents specially if the fishes are still small.
of course, the gold standard is: if it lays eggs, it must be female. the problem with this approach however is we have to wait til the fish is mature enough to spawn and lay eggs which would take a few months from the time it leaves its egg shell and swims out as a fry.
lately, a friend shared this fast and easy way of determining sex. this can be done on small juveniles and even on a large fry.
hold the fish with your fingers so the belly part is facing away from your palm (meaning, the dorsal fin of the fish faces your palm). position your thumb on the belly of the fish near the vent and at the level of the plums. gently press the belly going to the direction of the vent. pressure should start from the area of the plums going to the ventral portion of the fish. if its a male, you will notice a squirt of clear liquid coming out of the vent. i would seem like a watergun squirt coming from the belly of the fish. females dont exhibit this phenomenon. there would be some fluid discharge but the flow would not be strong.
i tried this is several fishes and so far, it works accurately. i still lack experience yet but i encourage those who own confirmed males and females to try this and share your experiences.
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i hope you learned something. have a great day!