Sexing salvinis

[missmary]

I bought 6 salvinis a couple months back... now 5 after one bailed (out of the tank and into the kitchen sink found him/her in the morning).

Anyways, they're putting on size. They all started out between 1-1.5" and are now 3" with a runt or two. I was wondering if anyone could post a side by side comparison of a male and female salvini.

I'm hoping to breed them sometime in the near future and need some help sexing them. Also, at approx. what size do they typically begin to pair up?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[missmary]

ttt

 

[Sab_Fan]

as I recall, the females have more red on the bellies . . . there are plent of good resources on-line that could confirm that, if no one here chimes in . . .

 

[sick_lid]

The females will have a black spot on the operculum (gill plate). The black on the dorsal fin does not count with these species, and the males will still have red on the bellie, but not nearly as much as the females.

 

[Morcs]

Females also have far far far better and brighter colour, and are smaller.

 

[missmary]

Good info all.

Does anyone have pics of their own male/female salvinis?

 

[Pomatomus]

I haven't been able to get a good one of my male but he's 7-8" and has no black spot on the operculum. Also, as noted, there is very little red on his belly. He is aggressive towards certain members of my tank (oscar & JD), but does not harass them.

If anyone wants to ship me mature female for him I'm interested! I have an empty 55 cycled!

 

[sick_lid]

Good info all.

Does anyone have pics of their own male/female salvinis?

Here's a photo thread of them we have on here. Mines somewhere on there.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263799

 

[missmary]

Wow, that salvini thread really helped (I had looked at it before, but didn't really pay attention to the fishes' operculum spots).

Now I just have one more question...

One of the five salvinis does not display the horizontal band/line of blotches of black. It does have a black spot on each side as tall as that black band would be about 2/3 of the way down its body towards the tail, but other than that, is almost entirely yellow. I'll try to get a picture of it later, but I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever seen/heard of a salvini with just a spot of black instead of that thick bar running down both sides.

 

[Barakus]

Females also have far far far better and brighter colour, and are smaller.

true to that...