Please help to sex my Banggai

[vahegan]

Hi everyone!
I've got this Banggai cardinal for several months and he has grown to about 2" now. I am trying to identify whether he is a male or a female before looking to find him a match. So far I am hesitant concerning his sex. From the one side his jaw looks to me quite big but on the other, his second dorsal in not at all that long and his belly is sort of plumpish, like he was with eggs...
Can anyone please help me to sex this fish?

Thanking you in advance for any help.

Vahe

 

[ctenophors rule]

It looks like a female to me. You use the vents to sex them. if you have a good pic of the vent just go to the lfs and find one that has a different looking vent.

cheers.

 

[yourbedormine18]

vent?

 

[vahegan]

Thank you very much, ctenophors rule!
I didn't know they can be sexed by the vents although I did notice that indeed there was an anal papilla on my fish. Trying to catch that with the camera, yet unsuccessfully. Will post it here if I am able to yield a proper photo of that area.

 

[vahegan]

Well, these photos are the best I could get from a Banggai casting...

 

[FMarini]

great shots--
what he means by vent is actually the ventral papillae-"bumps"
females have 1 papillae (caudal), males have 2 (both before and after vent)

 

[vahegan]

Thank you, for the clarifications, FMarini
Still unsure, whether I've got a female or a male.
Judging from the sexy shots I obtained - I can see 2 "bumps" - so, have I got a male? Or, one of the "bumps" is just the vent itself, and only the other is the real papilla?

 

[ctenophors rule]

marcel from south africa has a great thread that shows the differences between male and female well. I have used this successfuly on three attempts.

heres the link.

http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/showthread.php?t=15325

 

[FMarini]

Ctenophors--
Marcels thread is good, and very recent, so he is able to distill 15yrs of everyones experience into his report. All my articles were written 10-15yrs ago, when I first described the banggai breeding process.

Here is what i think is a better series of shots demonstrating "venting" in banggais
http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=166&t=2064&start=25

to me its more clear


Also here is a very through overview on banggai breeding, sexing, and fry raising all in one place. (http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=166&t=1851)

 

[vahegan]

Thank you very much, friends! Your links are great and your help is greatly appreciated!!!