# Sexing L. ocellatus Gold



## alexlee04 (Jul 19, 2009)

Hello All,

I have a single Gold occie that I suspect is a female. Recently I ordered four more occie fry online and two were DOA. I now have three and one is just too small to be with the other two. (kept getting beat up) I now want to be sure weather I have a male and female. The larger one is the suspected female and the smaller one is just younger. For size reference the small one is around 1in. Any experienced occie keepers with an eye for sexing them please let me know if I have a pair? All other guesses are welcome too! Thanks!

ps. I have read that the stripe on their dorsal and anal fin is the way to tell. White means female, gold means male.


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## axelfoley (Mar 11, 2010)

its my understanding that the only way to sex gold occelatus is to raise a group from the juvenile stage, and differentiate the sexes based on size... males larger than females...

perhaps you know someone experienced at venting?


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## alexlee04 (Jul 19, 2009)

I tried to vent the larger one but the fish was just so small. It would be easier with some help but there are no local fish stores(except for chain stores) or fish clubs in my area. Its hard to find people with the same passion. Maybe ill try to vent her again and snap a picture and see if someone on here can tell.


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## Ed Carter (Aug 2, 2010)

I have 15 gold occies, all of them have gold stripes so do I have all males? Talk about beating the odds


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## cjbtech (Dec 5, 2008)

The dorsal in my experience has been meaningless. I have had fish display both. The only thing I have noticed for sure are these behaviors & body shapes that have been pretty reliable. Hope this helps.
1. Males are almost always bigger from fry on up. Born at the same time.
2. females tend to be shorter in the body & have rounder bellies, males will have a longer more slender torpedo shape.
3. Also when they get a little age the females will be the ones displaying & trying to convince the males with tail wagging, to come back to their own shell. 
At least this has been my experience. Yours are probably a little small yet to tell. This has worked for my other Occys. as well as golds.


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## alexlee04 (Jul 19, 2009)

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for those indicators!


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## alexlee04 (Jul 19, 2009)

Ok so I managed to get a picture of the underside of one of my occies. I think it looks like a female but i'm not sure what it's supposed to look like.










Let me know if I need a better picture for venting. I am trying to avoid handling the fish as much as possible.


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## (Anthony) (Nov 26, 2009)

from previous experience with occies i found a way to sex the by looking at there head shapes.
The males have had a more robust head with females having a smaller head and less aggresive looking, hard to describe with out looking at the fish,

this has worked for me with My Golds, Blues, Yellow Fins, Speciosus and Meleagris,
you can also just simply go with the size of the fish.

HTH a little, 
Anthony,


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