Is it possible to sex bichirs?

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Slippery K

Slippery K

Piranha
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2011
2,491
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Ontario, Canada
Just curious if there is any way to determin the sex of bichirs. A couple months ago I got my first delhezi. I assume he's still too small to sex (about 5"). But I'm just curious for when the time comes.

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i believe that only adult bichirs can only be sexed ( about 8 inches for upper jaws and a bit larger for lower jaws). After that, I think the broader tail fin is the male and the smaller tail fin is a femail. might be the other way around. I think there is a sticky about. It's actually really straight forward.
 
U can determine by the *anal fin...not the tail fin. The anal fin is between the tail fin and the pelvic fins
 
Ok, I didn't see the sticky for it when I looked. So for a delhezi I should wait till he's doubled in size? He's about 5" and getting thicker by the day it seems.

Also, is it true they loose the external gills after about 10cm? I like the way the red external gills look, kind of gives them a little more character. Iv also seen pics of peoples larger bichirs on google that still have rements of the external gills.

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Some say the better the water quality the longer it takes for the gills to disappear. I have an endy and a lapradei who had external gills till 7 inches. I also have a weeksii who still have small gills even at 9 inches. But weeksiis are known to have gills for longer periods of time.


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libingboy said:
Some say the better the water quality the longer it takes for the gills to disappear. I have an endy and a lapradei who had external gills till 7 inches. I also have a weeksii who still have small gills even at 9 inches. But weeksiis are known to have gills for longer periods of time.


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Click to expand...

I completely agree with your statement about the weeksis. My weeksi still has his gills after 1.5 years.
 
I have super strange bichirs. I swear that my weeksi and retropinnis are runts of the pack since they have grown a full inch from when I got them which was 1.5 years ago. I chose them from a large pack of 10 to 12 inch bichirs of their species. oh ya... they are only less than 5 inches:jaw-dropp

I 55% wc every week and keep them in a 75 gallon tank.
 
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