Sexing Shoaling Fish

[Rubyuk]

Hi Everyone.

As you will see from my fishless cycling thread i'm nearly there so am taking the oppertunity to revisit my stocking plans.

I'll probably put that up on a different thread to get members thoughts etc

However one thing I would like to know is the male/female ratio for shoaling fish.

I dont know if it varies per species or whether its the same as I read that in some species the females can get pestered and therefore stressed from amorous male chasing/attention if there arn't enough females per male?

The main shoaling/semi shoaling fish I'm looking at are Rosey Tetras,Emperor Tetras and possibly Gold barbs.

Now do they all need the same male/female mix or not?

All we talking one male per female or one male per two females for example?

 

[Rubyuk]

No one got any opinion on this guys???

 

[helterskelter]

With the fish u state you do not need to worry about sexing.

It's mainly livebeares that u need more females than males.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

no for shoaling fish you very rarley need to worry about the m/f ratio. it's really only fish that you have in a breeding pair or trio or some species like to have a hareem of females. anything that we'd normally deem to be a 'feature fish' in a tank you should think about it along with any livebearers, but the vast majority of shoaling fish you'll have no need to ever worry about sexing them.

 

[Rubyuk]

no for shoaling fish you very rarley need to worry about the m/f ratio. it's really only fish that you have in a breeding pair or trio or some species like to have a hareem of females. anything that we'd normally deem to be a 'feature fish' in a tank you should think about it along with any livebearers, but the vast majority of shoaling fish you'll have no need to ever worry about sexing them.

Thanks Miss W

I had been under the impression (obviously wrongly) that where you could easily sex shoaling fish ie with the Emperor Tetras and Rosy Tetras that i'm getting and only getting a small shoal of say 6/7/8 that the ratio was quite important as if you get too many males they can squabble and fight over the one/few females in the shoal when it comes to a bit of 'loving time' etc

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah they may squabble a bit however it won't be serious enough to do any damage

also, try walkign into an lfs where they have a tank of 500 neons and asking them to give you 3 m and 3 f and see how they react!

 

[Rubyuk]

yeah they may squabble a bit however it won't be serious enough to do any damage

also, try walkign into an lfs where they have a tank of 500 neons and asking them to give you 3 m and 3 f and see how they react!

Yeah I knew about things like Neons but on the bigger tetras like mine where its easy even for a dumbo like me to sex them would they react the same way (you know the shops I'll be buying from )

 

[Miss Wiggle]

maybe, maybe not! depends which assist you get and how many they have and also how busy the shop is.

usually they're much happier to do things like this if you go in at a quiet time like one day through the week. Go in on a busy saturday lunchtime however and they probably won't.