sexing piranhas?

[decgoth]

Is there a way to tell the difference between the males and females? I was told once that the females are larger than the males but that doesn't help any since mine are about the same size.

Adrienne

[rollie]

the males is larger than the females. the male top fin will be more pointed than the female. the females may be redder in the belly area.

[decgoth]

thank you. now i'll check mine

[decgoth]

mine are probably 2 females from the looks of things. the 'bigger' one is more red/orange in the belly than the other but both of them have rounded looking top fins.

[rollie]

most likely females, then.

[decgoth]

you wouldn't by chance have pics of the difference would you :?: mine are so hard to take pics of and they've been acting 'strange' lately. the bigger one has been chasing the smaller one and then starts rubbing on and nudging the smaller one but nothing to cause injury. I've never seen the 2 of them act like that.

[rollie]

might be pictures on this site, somewhere. when william come on he can tell you more about pictures. there is the 20% chance you do have a pair.

[decgoth]

i poked around and didn't see any. they're the 'apple of my eye' right along with my daughters and my Rottie. But i'll see what william says too. thanks

[William]

I will start adding new pictures this weekend- I'll se if I find any for you.

[decgoth]

that would be great thanks

[William]

Oh I se that I forgot to mention that the difference described by Rollie isn't always visable. Red bellies are not sexually dimorphic and there are no clear 100% way to identify the gender of the fish by looking at it.

They sometims display the described differences, sometimes (often) they do not.

[decgoth]

so sexing them is harder than thought? not that it matters, i love mine just the same. Thought that there would be a way to tell. someone said told me the only way to tell is to cut them open, like i really want to do that. i thought they were nudging and chasing each other b/c maybe they were opposite sexes since that's what my guppies do right before they mate.

Adrienne

[William]

Someone was partly right. cutting them open or better xraying them is the only way to be 100% sure outside of the sawning period.

They might be of opposite sexes however red belly piranhas are hard to breed and I wouldn't count on them spawning if it might happen.

[decgoth]

i have no intentions on cutting them open, but thanks for the info.

Adrienne

[Full3R]

how much did u pay for your pirahnas decgoth

[decgoth]

I bought them almost a year ago when they were about an inch long each and paid $8- each. they're now about 6" long

[Full3R]

i want some but the laws in australia suck, but then again i could accidently order the wrong fish :P

[decgoth]

lol. from what i heard you can't have them in NY either. I'm SO GLAD Pa doesn't have that problem. There's no way i'd give up another pair again without a real good fight