Jack Dempsey - Visual Growth Rate
- Thread starter elting44
- Start date
I too think your looking at a female. I bred dempseys for awhile and that looks just like a small female.
Males, even at a young age don't show the black barring that the females do. They do have bars but they are not as prodominant as the females. That's usually the method I used to seperate potential pairs. It worked about 90% of the time.
I'll be watching the growth rate, good luck. I still love Dempseys.
Males, even at a young age don't show the black barring that the females do. They do have bars but they are not as prodominant as the females. That's usually the method I used to seperate potential pairs. It worked about 90% of the time.
I'll be watching the growth rate, good luck. I still love Dempseys.
Tug;1724725; said:I too think your looking at a female. I bred dempseys for awhile and that looks just like a small female.
Males, even at a young age don't show the black barring that the females do. They do have bars but they are not as prodominant as the females. That's usually the method I used to seperate potential pairs. It worked about 90% of the time.
I was under the impression that the barring faded in and out due to stress and was not gender related. I have noticed the bars changing intensity from time to time, but that could be insignifigant. Oh well, time will tell. If you had a 90% success rate with this method it would seem solid in theory. Thanks for the input
Your right both sexes show barring when stressed. I was just stating that at the young age your fish is at the females bars are more prodominant.
My large male (10" TL) would get bars when I messed with the tank but the female would turn almost fully black. When young rather then a full black dress females just show heavy bars.
Sorry if I confused you I didn't mean to. Like you said time will tell, good luck.
My large male (10" TL) would get bars when I messed with the tank but the female would turn almost fully black. When young rather then a full black dress females just show heavy bars.
Sorry if I confused you I didn't mean to. Like you said time will tell, good luck.
Thanks for clearing that up for me Tug. I plan on updating every week or two for the first few months Trikky, hopefully the thread continues to have positive reactions
The problem with using bars to sex is some fish are naturally darker and some lighter
So a naturally darker male may show more barring than a naturally light female
Ive always loved Dempseys and have been breeding them for the last year or two. The single thing I use to sex is the blue on the gill plate. Im almost never wrong, although there are cases where I cannot tell
In the last pic of the original post the majority of the rim of the gill plate has a nice blue line, with 2 easily detectible blue blotches. I wouldnt hesitate to move this one into the female only tank
So a naturally darker male may show more barring than a naturally light female
Ive always loved Dempseys and have been breeding them for the last year or two. The single thing I use to sex is the blue on the gill plate. Im almost never wrong, although there are cases where I cannot tell
In the last pic of the original post the majority of the rim of the gill plate has a nice blue line, with 2 easily detectible blue blotches. I wouldnt hesitate to move this one into the female only tank
Naturally darker and lighter Dempseys I've yet to see. I bred them several times and produced hundreds of fry and I never noticed lighter or darker types. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, just that I've never seen it. I sexed by the bars as well as the gill plate markings but I had better luck with using the darker bodies of the females. When they are young it's to hard to tell if the gill plate freckles will increase or stay the same.
My money is still on the female.
I say we take votes and see who's right and wrong. No hard feelings just a fun game seeming how this thread is going to be around for awhile.
My money is still on the female.
I say we take votes and see who's right and wrong. No hard feelings just a fun game seeming how this thread is going to be around for awhile.
we will see my male JD had alot of color on his gill plate and still does for a male at least if i'm wrong then you've got a great lookin female on your hands
