sexing fish

[jimbracco]

ok so...ahem, id like to be able to try to tell what sex my fish are, i have clowns,blue tang, yellow tang, and a few damsels..
My clowns are very docile and swim / sleep together but do not inhabit an anemone (not that i have any currently worth inhabiting)
any guides/pics out the of some fishy privates?

man, i can wait to hear some of these responses

 

[reefwife]

The easiest way to tell apart clowns is to compare their size. Clowns are asexual but as they grow together one takes on the female parts and one the male. The female will be bigger.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Well, there is the easy way and the messy way.. which one you want?!?




J/K, different fish have different cues. In your clowns, both start out as male. After time, one will become dominant and turn female. She will get larger then the male by about 25-50%. Damsels are the same. With lack of a pair, they usually stay male unless they switched prior to you getting them. Tangs are hard to tell and as far as I know, there really are not physical cues. In other fish, color markings and/or physical signs set apart male from female. Again, it just depends on the type of fish.

 

[michaelf1478]

when you clown fish pair up is when they can be sexed the female will be big and the male small now if the female dies the male can turn into the female and another of the juvis will step up and be the male

 

[reefwife]

I can't speak with authority on this, but I thought I read somewhere that tangs have a certain type of fin on the bottom that distinguishes sex. Don't qoute me on that though.

 

[jimbracco]

cool..any rec's on good anemones suitable for "hosting" ? my bigger one is black n white and about 2 years older than my smaller one (about one third size)

 

[reefwife]

Bubble tips are most common for clowns.

 

[michaelf1478]

Reefwife;187858 wrote: Bubble tips are most common for clowns.

Yep bubble tips

 

[ga-peaches72]

My clown started in a bubble tip but now it likes my long tenn. green tip better. So no acounting for taste. lol

 

[xyzpdq0121]

jimbracco;187855 wrote: cool..any rec's on good anemones suitable for "hosting" ? my bigger one is black n white and about 2 years older than my smaller one (about one third size)

As was state, try a BTA or LTA first, in that order. The natural hosts (Carpet Nems, Ritteri Nems, and Saddle Nems) are just too hard to keep in a non dedicated tank.

Just make sure you have a very established (Read: 1 year without a crash) and stable tank before trying a nem. Also know that in a war between a Nem and a coral, then Nem will usually win. Also, they source of your flow should really be analized with going with a Nem. Nems love powerheads, too bad for them, the powerheads will make short work of a Nem.

 

[texhorns98]

Good LORD amberjack! You are digging up some old ones today!!

 

[llewella]

Yup, male Yellow tangs grow larger than females and also have a raised patch of scales just in front of the scaples on the tail. You kind of have to look head on to see it. This is supposed to hold true for all Zebrasoma.

A male naso tang has streamers on his tail.

Not sure what kind of damsels you have but in the blue devil damsels the female is totally blue with no orange or yellow. They also have nearly translucent fins versus the totally blue fins in the males. Damsels are also hermaphrodites meaning they can become either sex.

I know you didn't list this fish but with a pajama cardinal the male has a more squared off jaw and often a longer streamer on the top fin. If spawning he will often look beat up pretty bad.

 

[smallblock]

I have a pair of yellow watchmen goibies that had been in a guys tank for a year or so. When i got them they were both yellow. One day one had turned white with blue specks she is the female.