so apparently hoplias aimara are easily sexed by there anal fin . i found this cool bit of info googling away . found the link on another forum actually , predatory fish keepers dot com .
anyway in the study the native riparian people in the area where the study was done , told researchers they could tell the male and female apart , using the anal fin . the researchers confirmed what the natives already knew by catching and dissection .
it turns out it should be pretty easy to tell from the anal fin . so i tried to get a look at mine and compare to the pics in the artical . but this is a little harder then would be expected . i did get a look at them and im leaning toward both being female but im not 100 percent sure . pretty sure the one is , but there still could be some hope the other one is a male .
anyway im trying to figure out the best way to be able to get a real good look . and even pics that i can then blow up a bit on the computer and get an even better look and comparison .
i will post here too for others to see and possibly help me come to a conclusion .
ok so the problem is going to be catching these guys without hurting them , or getting bitten lol im not to worried about being bitten more just about doing the least harm to the fish .
anyone have any ideas ?
im thinking of catching them with a rubber net and then maybe wrapping the front end of the fish in a wet towel with the back end sticking out , holding them in such a way to spread out the anal fin and get my wife to snap a couple pics . do you guys think this is a good idea with the towel ? or will this maybe take off the slime coat ?any other suggestions
heres a like to the artical its a pretty cool read
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bjb/v74n3/1519-6984-bjb-74-03-687.pdf
