Sexing young Jags?

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DaveUK

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 30, 2010
57
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N-W. UK
Ive recently been given around 10 half inch to an inch sized Jags.

I dont plan to keep them all, obviously, but was hoping to keep 1 male or a male and female.. Just wondering how to sex them while there still small?

Thanks
 
pretty sure you will have to grow them out a bit and see, one male should be the easiest since he will most likely show himself as the most dominant/aggressive and grow the fastest but sometimes you cant really tell for sure without venting or until they are several inches long, however at the size they are right now they are still too small for venting but they wont stay that way for long. i have to jag babies i got at an 1in about a month ago and they are already 2in or a bit longer now, and the main one im pretty sure is male because he is definitely the boss of the other one and is already showing spotting on both sides of his belly, but ive never seen this spotting on any other jags this small (in pictures, ive never kept other jags before)
 
when they reach about 2" you can "almost" tell the sexes apart. The females will have dark dots running along the middle of their body(laterally), and no spots or lines below those dots. The males will have dots going all the way down to their bellies. At least that's what I found from the jags I have. And yes, they are extremely aggressive, especially when breeding.
 
I think your best bet is to let them pair off or as stated isolate the bruiser of the bunch.
 
I agree with the above advice. The male will be the biggest, baddest one. If you want a male/female pair, with 10 of them, they will likely pair off naturally. The pair will be obvious since the non-paired ones will be floating on top ;)

Good luck, Jags are fun fish.
 
Thanks for the info guys! Ive been watching one of them and he's almost twice as big as some of the others, guessin he's a male? Eats like a trooper too gotta be a good sign?
 
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