Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I need to be able to tell the sex between these tilapias. How do you tell? They look nothing like the pictures I've found online. Help?

perhaps swipe with some gentian violet and wipe it away to help show the parts better but I expect you might need to let them get a bit older to make it more obvious. Which kinda sucks because many are probably old enough to actually start breeding though many may still be hard to tell the difference visually.

I personally always had better luck telling the genders apart by behavior and coloration than I did looking at the fishy private parts.

Ditto. I had to sex by behavior, too. This after netting each and every fish out of my tank, sorting them, selecting breeders, and then discovering that I was pretty much wrong except that the largest fish was in fact male.

Janet Good to see you again! Welcome back!


Joe

Janet! Great to see you again! I was wondering where you'd gone. Sounds like some major changes, based on your username...

Yup, I wondered how long it would take before someone noticed the name change. Out with the husband, out with the name. Life is much better. I won't be spending the kind of time that I used to on the forum, but I'll check in now and again.

Hi. The female has an oval shaped papilla with a slit (oviduct) perpendicular to the body while the male has an elongated papilla without any slit. A dab of methylene blue on the papilla will make the oviduct more visible to the naked eye. It is not difficult but just needs a little practice to train the eye. Tilapia can be sexed in this manner as early as when 2-3 months old.

i think this photo(not mine) shows the difference clear.

right... i've seen that one. doesn't help with these.

They look like 3 males to me. The only way to see clearer is like the above said, dap with a paper towel, wipe some dye.. even food coloring on there and squeeze the area to see if a slit opens up.

can you tell from this pic? I still have difficulty telling even with the huge ones - the best i can gather since i know the males often have colored tails is they also have a straight 'Johnson' whereas the females seem to be more puffy and less protruding? >.< I can't even tell well from watching their behavior inside the aquarium, I have seen the male chase off a female that's already brooding just the same as he does other males... /sigh

and i feel terrible for this one as when it slipped out of my hand an ant got on eh her? hopefully they gobbled him up after she was dropped back in the water...

lol and another question... if that's a female will she spawn with males smaller than her? rotflmao - she is def the biggest by far didn't weigh her but the others that have been mating are barely bigger than my hand and she is nearly the length of my arm

/bump

That last pic looks like a male................. but the ant, is harder to tell............

Lol crap I bet I have my aquarium full of all males >_< which would be funny if that's why the oldest batch I bought from you never brooded - I finally got two batches from the smaller ones though with only 20-30 eggs each and that might have come from the same female I still can't tell them apart