Minimum size to accurately sex Green Terrors? (Without venting them)

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BassetsForBrown

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Dec 2, 2012
526
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Boston
Over the last several months ive gone through two GTs. Grown first from 2" to 5", and then finally realized it was female. Second one grew from 1" to 4.5ish. Also turnsd out female. When theyre tiny I know its very unreliable and speculative to sex them. These two were always the first to feed, had the least nips or inperfections on fins, seemed dominate etc. Id really like to grow out a male, but I dont want to chance that method again. What is the approximate minimum size the fish would need to be to sex it just by looking?

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Buy a group of 4 - 6, then raise them out until you get a male and rehome/sell/trade the rest.
 
ryansmith83 said:
Buy a group of 4 - 6, then raise them out until you get a male and rehome/sell/trade the rest.
Click to expand...

I do not have the space to do this. Also do not what to go through the hassel of finding good homes for all the ones I dont keep. It was hard enough finding homes for the other two.

I just want to buy one that I can be sure is male, at the smallest size possible.



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I don't know that there's a good, consistent answer for a minimum. Short of getting a group and growing them out as above, accurately sexing them is a relative proposition, since whether you can or how accurately you can distinguish them depends on age, individual fish, and your experience with them.

Some of the differences you can see later on are close to undetectable at smaller sizes. At 2 inches or so, you'd have a hard time picking out males imo, you may or may not be able to watch a group for a while and make an educated guess at one or two possible males, but it's also easy to get it wrong. In my own experience, 3.5-4 inches or thereabouts is when it starts becoming less of a guess or a suspicion if you can observe them pretty closely. But at that point it may still depend on the individual fish and/or your own feel for them.
 
You are not alone. I raised many GT from fry and have mistaken many colorful juveniles as males until one day they dropped their egg tubes. Minimum size GT that can be sexed is 4 inch. There are no reliably traits GT can be sexed before they reach sexual maturity at around 4 inch, not even venting. Females turn dark when they are in breeding dress so they are more colorful when not in breeding.
 
Any suggestions of breeders in the Boston area who may consistently have them? I am aware of all (5) LFS within an hr's drive, but they all only stock GT's on a varying basis.....Also if I found one at 4 inches it would probably be $30+. They all tend to be rip offs around here. I still have the two females (5" and 4.5"), healthy, well fed, and colorful, but the most any of the LFS in that driving radius would offer towards trade-in-credit was $2.50/ea. I almost suffocated from my own laughter.
 
I sexed my old pair at 2". It was a wild guess but it turned out I was right


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