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Skeeter
11-12-2009, 02:10 AM
Hello... :imnewhere:

I have a gorgeous school of 10 green tiger barbs. I have no idea how to sex them...none of them have red-tipped dorsal fins (although all the other fins have red tips). Some of them are very stout and full bodied...I assumed that these were females but some of them have the orangish nose, which I thought was a male trait???

They are all the same age but some of them are smaller...I thought I read somewhere that the males were smaller? Anyway, the smaller ones do not have orange noses. They are all exhibiting courting behaviour...lots of "head stands" and other displays, including sparring, which brings me to my main question. Does the courting behaviour vary between males and females or do both sexes display to each other?

I'm not interested in breeding them...I just find their behaviour fascinating and would like to understand them better!

Thanks in advance,

Kim

jaysee
11-13-2009, 05:08 AM
Welcome to the site! Seems to me you have a pretty good idea of how to sex themthumbs2: Do you know what the m/f split is?

Skeeter
11-15-2009, 12:26 AM
Welcome to the site! Seems to me you have a pretty good idea of how to sex themthumbs2: Do you know what the m/f split is?

Well...probably more males than females. It's hard to tell with some of the bigger ones whether they are gravid females or just fat males lol ;)

jaysee
11-15-2009, 05:57 AM
Well...probably more males than females. It's hard to tell with some of the bigger ones whether they are gravid females or just fat males lol ;)

These pics will help. Notice the color differences in the noses, dorsal fins, anal fins and tails.

female/male