[ebjdftw]

I have a 20 gallon long with a group of breeding ocellatus. I think I have 4 females and 1 male. I know for sure that the largest one is the male, but there is a slightly smaller one that I think is female but it could possibly be male too. Every single fish has fry in their shells so it's hard for me to determine. I'm wondering if there are some pointers out there to help me distinguish. Thanks.

 

[Darkside]

Without confirmation of breeding the only way to know for sure is to vent them. You'll probably need a magnifying glass to do so.

 

[shellies215]

males tend to be longer, and more slender, and some people can sex them pretty reliably by the shape of the face. The myth about the color of the tips of the fins is unreliable. AS darkside says, they would have to be vented, but with fish that are giving you shells full of fry, I wouldn't bother putting them through the stress, you know you've got both M/F

 

[ebjdftw]

yeah I'm just wondering if I have 1M:4F or 2M:3F.... from observing them I do think the one in question is female, she's just a big female. I can see a difference in the face structure of her and the male. Thanks for the tips guys. I didn't really set this up for breeding so I'm going to let this take it's course. I actually work at my LFS now and they want any fry that make it big enough to sell so I'm not too worried about that either.

 

[football mom]

There's a significant size difference between my male and female occies.