Determining the sex of a black ghost knife...

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M

Munroser

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2007
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British Columbia, Canada
I always took for granted that our BGK was a male because it is the most powerful fish in the tank and moves like the king, but after reading various threads, I am realizing that HE may be a SHE. My GK is approximately 16 years of age, but he/she is only about 12" or 13" long. He/she is in a 75 gal. community tank...with only a few smaller normal fish (Betta, Cory, gold fish, tetra, some barbs, some black skirts etc.) as tank mates.

I think that it is interesting when we (hmmm..."I"...:() put human traits on my fish. For example, our BGK is really gentle and keeps his/her cave really clean...gives it a sweep a couple of times every day etc. and loves to snuggle in the palm of my hand or twirl around in a vertical position while in my fingers form a cave pointing down.

(sorry if there is a whole thread about this there that I have missed, just please direct me to it)
 
There is no known way to tell the differences in genders of BGK’s….

There are no known traits to be more likely in one gender than the other…

Although I read all the time BGK’s get 24”… I’ve seen several in the 12” range… but have never seen one much larger…

I have a 5 year old which has lived it’s live in a 300 gal… it’s 12~13”…

I’ve also read that they can change gender if need be… although I’m not sure how people know that seeing we do not know how to tell the difference in males & females nor do we know how they spawn…
 
they say that it can be determined on the bgk face and body. the male has a horselike face, and the female is thicker than the male. but im not sure about it. better if someone has a pics of the face of the female and male bgk and theier body thickness.
 
Okay, thanks to some pictures that Red Devil put out, I realized that my GK has no white stripe down his or her back and that it might have something to do with the sex of the GK. What do you think? I don't know how to post pictures but I do have a picture of "MAC" ... "yes, MAC the Knife"... newly named after our thread partner Malawi Mac...in my personal gallery. You will also see my TSN.
 
I may be wrong but was told that if the line along the back was thick its a male and if its a skinny line its female. But I cant be positive that is correct.
 
i have a 35cm bgk that looks like a horse :-)
 
Thanks everyone...it looks like my boy is actually a girl. :D So, having said that, she is 16 years old and she finally gets a name "Mac" (like two days ago ) and then I find out she is a girl... :headbang2... but I am not going to change it. She'll be like a boy named Sue and hopefully she will live for at least another decade.
Here's what I learned from the article that fourty2 put forward and it works with the stuff that Aqua Sanctuary had to say:
1. She has very tiny eyes. (so tiny I am always amazed at how tiny they
are) Allegedly the female's eyes are tiny and are opaque while the male's are a little bit larger and are black. Her eyes are so small that they are like dots.
2. Her eyes are situated forward on her head.
3. Her head is not very broad.
4. She has no stripe on her spine.

Moonchild, does this help you at all?
 
So going off that info mine is male.
 
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