Panduro Sexing Help

[BigDaddyAdo]

Hi All,

Just had a pair of Panduro sent to me and am doubting if I ended up with a male and female. I have only managed to get a pic of 1 so far as the other hides when the camera is near.

What do you think?

I will post a pic of the other one when it stays still long enough.

 

[BigDaddyAdo]

Here is the other. This is the best of about 40 pics I just took. It wont stop zooming up and down the sides.

 

[Mike Wise]

Bottom one is a male. The top one? Either a poor quality female with no dark markings or a young male.

 

[BigDaddyAdo]

What is the likelihood of the first being a female?

 

[BigDaddyAdo]

I ask as I have found pics on google of females without the typical markings.

 

[Mike Wise]

For me the wild pattern is what one looks for in an ideal specimen. Those specimens without this pattern are almost always domestic bred fish. Without knowing the size and age of the fish it is hard to sex. Juvenile males look very much like females - as do subdominant sneeker males.

The females of the typical form, with a large lower flank patch, also show a large dark patch on the gill cover. Your fish shows only a cheek stripe. Females of the Brustband form, which show a wide vertical stripe on the flanks also only shows a cheek stripe - like all males. Without the visible flank markings it is not possible to determine which form that you own so the cheek stripe is not a reliable sex marker.

 

[BigDaddyAdo]

Understood.

This is the image that I found that I was referring to.

 

[BigDaddyAdo]

How confident are you that the top one is a male?

 

[BigDaddyAdo]

I should also mention that the top one is 5cm and the bottom one is 3cm. If the larger one is a male should I be expecting better colouring at this size?

I have a choice to make. I can either take another fish from the same batch that looks just like the top photo or wait until they get an obvious female in stock.

What do you think Mike? You are the expert so I will probably go with whatever you suggest. I just need to decide by Monday.

 

[BigDaddyAdo]

Here is a better image of the possible male:

And the possible female:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I can't help with sexing, but they look to have settled in really well.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mike Wise]

The photos you show are of a nice looking male and IMHO a rather poor quality - color-wise - female. The color in the photo of the male's flanks is probably a bit washed out. If you looked at the same fish in a beam of sunlight, my guess is that the sky-blue flanks would show better. As for the female, look at the photos of A. panduro on TomC's site: http://www.tomc.no/fish.aspx?fishIndexID=2387&gruppeID=1. Note the markings on the female in the top right photo (type form) and last photo (Brustband form). These are what females should look like.

Both of your fish look healthy, so no problem there. If, however, I wanted to produce the best offspring, I would pick breeders with wild markings.

 

[BigDaddyAdo]

It certainly does look male in the photo but IRL it is quite yellow which is what really threw me.

I might give them few weeks and see how it pans out.