Zebra Danio Gender Determination

[blix]

Just curious as to if anyone else had heard this before. I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that the anal fins in this species are different colors on males than on females. One gender has the anal fin more gold colored and the other gender has the anal fin bluish colored. I had zebra danios at the time and I remember seeing examples of both colorations in my tank at the time. Watched them lay eggs too which was interesting. Had no way to seperate them at the time because I only had a 10 gallon tank then. I think I was 17 at the most then.

I know there were males and females present because there WERE fry hanging on the glass a few days later.

Anyone else heard of this anal fin characteristic to sex these fish?

 

[helterskelter]

Yes thats it, and very easy to sex.

Also females get quite fat which is a give away too.

 

[JustKia]

Both of my males are more gold than the females, and then the males get really gold when they are ready for mating.
On a regular (not mating LOL) day the males fins (all not just anal) are slightly gold and their dorsal fin has a pale yellow edge to it as well.
Regardless of colour the females are way fatter than the males - they're like little tug boats - bless 'em.

 

[Devorax]

Umm, are we talking about ZEBRA danios here, because so far all that has been said matches my PEARL danios. I don't mean to sound totally dumb, but none of my Zebras have any colouring on their anal fins at all, except the normal continuation of their 'zebra' markings. I would love to know the genders of my Zebras, and all this thread has done is confuse me even more!

 

[millym]

the descriptions are right - if you look carefully the zebra females have the deeper rounder bellies - our female leopard & zebra's are easy to spot from the males from this.......as said like little tugboats that get fatter when egg bound. i havent looked for the fin colour differences prob cos its easy to tell just from their shapes instead but i'll look when i get home

 

[blix]

Umm, are we talking about ZEBRA danios here, because so far all that has been said matches my PEARL danios. I don't mean to sound totally dumb, but none of my Zebras have any colouring on their anal fins at all, except the normal continuation of their 'zebra' markings. I would love to know the genders of my Zebras, and all this thread has done is confuse me even more!

Sorry---wasn't meant to cause confusion. It's a subtle fin color difference. I am referring to zebra danios. They move fast so sometimes it is hard to notice. I just hadnt heard about this online anywhere but remember reading it somewhere about the anal fin coloration and was wondering if anyone has noticed this before. It would be a good measure for separating females who arent ripe yet for those interested in breeding them.

The color difference I am talking about on the zebra danios is a subtle one but noticeable nonetheless if you look close enough. I'm all for sharing factual information on fish if I come across it and it can be verified.

 

[JustKia]

I was referring to zebra and leopard danios.
Both of my males (one of each zebra and leopard) have a slight gold tint to all of their fins and their dorsal (not anal) fin has a pale yellow edge to it.

 

[Devorax]

Okay, well, I never meant to contradict anyone (because God knows you all know more than me), I just pondered it because there are clear markings on the Pearl Danios that match the decriptions above whilst our Zebras don't match it. That's fine, perhaps the Zebras move too fast for me to notice it, or more likely that we have all the same gender and so cannot spot any differences between them. We do have 2 that could be described as 'tugboats'...lol, so that might be enough. I never meant to question anyone's integrity/quality of knowledge, I just did wonder if it was maybe a typo or something. Thanks everyone, at least now I do know what to look for, so maybe when I see a large group in the LFS I can spot them now.

 

[barrycuda]

dont need to look at the fins to sex them. very easy to tell. males are streamlined and females are plump.

 

[MikeAquariums]

I have a couple of these fish I will take a picture for all of you and put it on here you tell me witch is what.i don't know how to put pictures on here